Russian YouTube clone aptly named RuTube is getting some major funding from Russian media holding group Gazprom-Media, with the company acquiring a majority stake in the online video-sharing site. Gazprom is actually valuing RuTube at $15 million, and will be pouring “several million dollars in the RuTube business,” according to a report on Quintura’s blog.
With about 400,000 daily users and consumption of over 40 million videos per month, the monthly revenues reportedly reach about $400,000. We actually mentioned RuTube in two blatant rip-off posts, so perhaps you’ve noticed that a lot of clones occur overseas, which also seem to be the most successful.
Quintura mentioned this by noting that US-based clones don’t seem to catch the same kind of breaks we’ve witnessed in Germany and Russia, among other countries that are across the ocean.
A $15 million valuation isn’t bad for the boot-strapped RuTube, which was started shortly after YouTube was acquired by Google. Well, that’s a dream come true, now isn’t it? The Russian market is heating up in the online space, with LiveJournal recently having been acquired by Russian company SUP as well.
