Youku, China’s largest video sharing site, is experiencing tremendous growth and announced its Initial Public Offering of 15.8 million shares. This IPO will start trading on NYSE this Wednesday at $12.80 per share. Youku owns of 22.5 % of the Chinese video sharing sector, and the tenth most visited site in the country with a approximate of 264 million users.

The company filed for Initial Public Offering a month ago as a part of its expansion plans. It will be using the funds (roughly $202.8 million) to develop the technology and acquiring the rights to legally upload videos from film and television studios.

We are also watching the developments and growth in the online video industry as a whole. A recent YuMe report suggests that around 75 % of female consumers and 69 % of male consumers complete the video ads, which is  good news for most brands. According to this report, ad completion rate for age group of 25-49 years age group is 68%, which is quite interesting.

“There is no question that video advertising has seen huge growth, presenting both advertisers and publishers alike with incredible opportunities,” said Jayant Kadambi, President and Co-Founder of YuMe. “As consumers turn to online video across all platforms, marketers are moving dollars and creative to the web and we expect this trend to grow into 2011 as online advertising grows.”

Another report by comScore reports that the U.S. pushed 1 billion ads viewed in the fall,  and this is prompting advertisers to move into online space.

This growth will undoubtedly bring about further regulation of this “wild west” industry.  So far, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and others are asking questions about certain data plans and payment options, which will have an affect on online video distribution and advertising. Recently, questions were raised on pay-as-you-go internet prices by the FCC.

As the growth and developments continue in online video industry, Google is taking regulatory measures of its own, with the acquisition of Seattle-based anti-piracy software provider Widevine, whose technology is currently in use on around 250M web-connected TVs and devices.