for: calabash
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for: calabash
Hulu is a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States. Hulu provides video in Flash Video format, including many films and shows that are available in 480p and high-definition. Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo! and Comcast's Fancast.com.
Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Fox (News Corp), with funding by Providence Equity Partners, which made a USD$100 million equity investment and holds a 10% stake.
Name
The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, hulu ( ) "calabash, bottle gourd" and hulu ( ) "interactive recording". The company blog explains.
In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to "gourd," and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is "interactive recording." We saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu.This Chinese "holder of precious things" expression baohulu 宝葫芦 "treasure/magic bottle gourd" occurs in Zhang Tianyi's children's novel Baohulu de mimi 宝葫芦的秘密, translated as The Secret of the Magic Gourd.
History
The Hulu venture was announced in March 2007, with AOL, MSN, Facebook and Yahoo! planned as "initial distribution partners". Jason Kilar was named the CEO in June. The name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test. In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends. Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008. Hulu began an advertising campaign during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled Alec in Hululand, intended to humorously reveal the shocking "secret behind Hulu", portraying the site as being an "evil plot to destroy the world" . Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku and Seth MacFarlane.
Features
Hulu distributes video both on its own web site and syndicates its hosting to other sites, and allows users to embed Hulu clips on their websites. In addition to NBC and FOX programs and movies, Hulu carries shows from other networks such as Comedy Central, PBS, USA Network, Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, SPEED Channel, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, E!, G4, Versus, and Oxygen.
