WebProNews

One supposes if one has access to billions, what's tens of millions on a calculated bet? One could say that, but one still gets upset when one loses money in the pop machine. In the case of some Chinese online video sites, it's more like three pop machines.

Doh!

Instead of kicking the machine, investors in the three sites "battling to become the 'YouTube of China'" are still dropping money into them. So far both Tudou and Youku collected $80 million in loose investor change; 56.com brought in at least $30 million.

Here's something else they have in common: They're all mysteriously offline.

Although, given the Chinese government's MO, a site suddenly unavailable could hardly be called "mysterious." More like par for the Web 2.0, citizen media course. Plus the Olympics are coming up, and there are copyrights to protect.

Despite the perceived threats to stability and copyrights, and the offline status of the sties themselves, Silicon Alley Insider reports that the venture capital has rolled in as recently as last week. Michael Learmonth suggests "the potential upside is so great, there seem to be plenty still willing to roll the dice."

Yeah, well, those are some expensive dice. Maybe after the Olympics are over, the sites will be back online and attracting viewers with approved user-generated content. Good luck with that last part. User-generated content is a bit hard to control, just ask YouTube.