Maverick China Managing Director Dave Carini was recently quoted in Asian Venture Capital Journal. The article is about the future of China’s online video industry, highlighting how the high increase in content and bandwidth costs is affecting the industry.

The merger of online video sites Youku and Tudou ensures market dominance, but they must still bring costs under control in a competitive environment. Investors are advised to sell up or stay out.

“Five years ago, you had close to 100% of streaming television series online coming from illegal uploads; today you can go onto the major online video sites and find a number of them legal provided by the content producers,” says Dave Carini, co-founder of tech consultancy Maverick China Research. “Viewers will want more of this high-quality content in the future, meaning further cost increases for the video sites.”

Click here for the April edition of the Asian Venture Capital Journal, where the full article can be found on page 10.