There’s a rumor going around that Google is investing a major stake in a Chinese P2P startup called Xunlei1 (or Thunder). Xunlei is reported to have between 75 million to 100 million downloads of its software, and has raised previous funding from Morningside2 and IDG Ventures3. The rumor is that Google, along with Ceyuan Ventures4, is participating in Xunlei’s next round of funding, and a source says that the pre-money valuation is around $100 million.
We haven’t been able to confirm this planned investment with the companies, but have heard this from three different sources in China and recently read the rumor here, too5. We contacted Google and they naturally said “we don’t comment on speculation or rumors.” Ceyuan Ventures and Xunlei didn’t get back to us.
A source tells us that Xunlei’s software is getting an average of 140,000 downloads per day and the company has around 200 employees. The source also says that the company is working with television stations to do P2P downloads of television content that they attach ads to, and content partners include Phoenix TV and Hunan Satellite TV. There’s even a rumor from site ChinaByte6 that the company plans to partner with Horizon Media Group’s mobile community website 139.com to release an IM service soon. Last week we emailed the guys at Pacific Epoch6, a research company that looks at all things related to China and the Internet, to learn more about the startup.
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