It was conspicuously missing from a list of 247 approved online video services providers recently licensed by China regulators. Yet Youku, or the Chinese YouTube equivalent, has kept its cool and confirmed an additional US$30 million raised in private equity funding and secured a US$10 million equipment loan provided by Western Technology Investment. Maverick Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Brookside Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital and Chengwei Ventures.

Youku also announced it has entered into content cooperation partnerships with over a hundred traditional media groups including Shanghai TV, Beijing TV, Jiangsu TV, China Film Group, Universal Music, EMI Music, Huayi Music and a large number of top film, TV and music performers in China.

Launched in December 2006, Youku had completed three rounds of venture financing worth US$40 million by November last year. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Youku had registered more than 12 million unique visitors and more than 100 million video views a day in December last year.

In a press interview on Sina tech news earlier in June, Youku claimed that it had surpassed close online rival Tudou.com as China’s number one video sharing website.  The latter had received a warning from Chinese authorities and had briefly suspended operations in March.

Earlier in April, Tudou announced that they had closed “Series D” funding of US$57 million from leading venture capital firms including US-based IDG Technology Venture Investment (IDGVC). This is possibly the largest round of funding to date for a pure play Chinese internet company. In total, Tudou has raised a commendable USD85 million over the past 3 years.

To read more on Tudou’s co-founder Marc Van Der Chijs’ views on gaming portal success in China, click here.