New | Chinese teen gets online support after accusing Youku of stealing his space-balloon video idea
A Chinese teenager has won strong support from the mainland online community after he accused China’s internet video giant Youku.com of stealing his idea for a video.
In an article posted on mobile messaging app Wechat last Saturday, the 19-year-old, known only by his online moniker Niko Edwards, detailed how Youku approached him and his team to create a mini-documentary, but ended up allegedly stealing their idea of sending a balloon up to space to film the earth.
The article has since garnered more than 100,000 page views on Wechat and has been shared on microblog service weibo more than 150,000 times, with many slamming Youku for its alleged behaviour.
We stand out today because firstly our interests were damaged, and secondly to prevent more young people from being bullied by such people in future
One weibo user wrote: “We stand out today to voice our support for you (Niko) because we empathise with you for how you’ve been hurt. To guard your dreams is to guard our own dreams.”
Another internet user wrote: “Can Youku be more shameful … copying a creative idea from a 19-year-old and dealing a hard blow to young entrepreneurs.”
In Niko’s article, the high-school graduate from Jieyang city in Guangdong province said he worked with five friends to send a balloon – with a camera and global positioning system attached to it – into the sky on September 3, in the hope of filming the earth from space.
He posted photos of the process on social media, titling the project “Wild Kids Chasing The Balloon”, and it soon drew the attention of several media organisations, including Youku.
According to screenshots of emails Niko exchanged with Youku producer Wang Teng, the online video giant proposed in early October to shoot a short film on the Niko’s project, which Wang said would be used in a promotional video for mainland business chat app Maimai. Youku offered to pay Niko and his team 6,000 yuan for the collaboration.