Mainland China vs. HK hosting

Questions about user-generated video site

[JonSides]

Hi all. I've read several informative threads here on related topics of pros and cons of hosting behind the firewall or not. I'm thinking about a site primarily for mainland viewers and a large part of the site would feature user-generated video. I'm an American with a Chinese partner.
One of my concerns is that as an American I might have problems if my site is "media" in the eyes of the Chinese officials.
I suspect that if I host it in HK, I'll have great firewall problems similar to YouTube, which I believe remains blocked.
Does anyone know whether I'd have problems or would have to put up 1 million RMB for the commercial ICP license?
Does anyone know whether YouKu or the other video sites will host videos that I could embed in my pages similar to YouTube or other western video sites?
Thx,
Jon

[bill]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld JonSides.

You're going to want to be as close to your users as possible with video content. You'll want to get hosting within the great firewall, and then register for your ICP license.

[JonSides]

Thanks for the quick reply. I definitely want to be close. I hope it's feasible. The cost of a commercial ICP license could be a dealbreaker. I'm hoping to off load video storage to a video sharing site such as YouKu and hoping that resolves any question of needing a commercial license. My partner is going through official channels. I thought I'd try posting here. I'm also checking with my cousin who has a software company in Shanghai. I can update the thread when I find out anything if anyone else is interested in the video questions.

[bill]

I'd be interested to hear back whether you are required to get an ICP license or not. It was our earlier understanding that all sites hosted in China required this [webmasterworld.com]. Then another member noticed the WSJ site didn't have an ICP license posted [webmasterworld.com]. Maybe they have a licence, but don't post it? We never got a clear answer on that.