internet - The video-sharing battle field

Danwei is doing a great job in getting a bit of a view on the digital battlefield for video sharing. Amazing again how fast the market changes in dynamic China. In one year time a new industry has emerged, where entering is like mixing with the sharks - as Danwei has told Rupert Murdoch earlier in another situation.
Let me share a nice story here, without mentioning names, that would be too nasty. At the beginning of this year I was called by an US-based podcaster who - as they told me - wanted to conquer Asia too. That is the kind of story VC's like, so they wanted my help. My first advice, I needed five seconds for that, was not to deal with Asia as a whole. Let be modest, I told them, start with China. They agreed.
The problem was now that I also knew already a Chinese company who was desperately looking for the kind of platform the US company was offering, at that stage audio-sharing, but video-sharing was within reach. If I would have been nasty, I would have done a decent market-entry study and by the time that would be ready, the market would have been gone.
In a stupid effort to be Mr. NiceGuy I forfeited the possibility of doing a market entry study and offered them the ideal match right away. Speed was key, I felt, and brought both parties together.
Speed was no problem at the Chinese side, but they Americans clearly were not ready for the "let's go and run" approach of the Chinese company.
The last positive noise I heard was that a launch was in the making for February, but that not yet all problems had been solved. It is a difference of six months, but entering this market now seems crazy. And the US company? They seem to be unable to even conquer the US.
Next time, I will just be nasty.

Update: Shanghaiist points at some figures I have missed, but only stress my point. The number of video-sharing websites is estimated to be around 200 today. They give a top-7, but indeed the Alexa ratings would not be a good criterium.