The Beijing based rich video hosting service, Youku, offers many of your favorite videos, TV shows and movies for free. But, only for people living in Mainland China. Access to content on Youku.com is geo-blocked and is not available to people outside China.
If you do try to play your favorite video on Youku then you will be slapped with the notice stating “Sorry, this video can only be streamed within Mainland China.” Being denied the access to the very show you have been waiting so eagerly just because you are outside of China does not feel justified. Here is what happens if you try to stream online on Youku from any other region:
Unblock Youku with VPN
Fortunately, with Youku VPN by your side, you can unblock the service and enjoy your favorite videos from anywhere. Simply put, a VPN is the most simple and cost-effective solution to bypass geo-restrictions and watch Youku outside China. Here are some tried and tested China VPN services you can use to Unblock Youku and enjoy your favorite videos, movies, and shows.
When you connect to a server located in China, VPN provider hides your original IP, changes your virtual location, and tells the service that you are accessing the website from China. This is how VPN enables you to watch Youku and other geo-blocked content regardless of your geographic location.
A VPN does not only hide your IP, but also encrypt all of your information and protects your privacy, making it impossible for anyone to identify you or the information that you send or received over the internet.
How to Watch Youku Outside China on Android?
Android devices also have their unique IP addresses, which websites read to determine the location of the devices. To unblock Youku outside China on Android devices, you must subscribe to only those VPN providers that are compatible with Android OS.
Simply, download the VPN application from Google Play Store, install it, launch the application, enter your username and password, and then connect through a Chinese VPN server. Once connection is established, you can enjoy your favorite videos without any interruption.
How to Watch Youku Outside China on iPad/iOS?
Watching Youku outside China on iPad or iOS powered devices is difficult, since the location of the devices can be easily traced by the website. It is important to select VPN for Youku that is compatible with iPad and other iOS devices. Using anyone of the above recommended Youku VPNs shall enable iPad or iOS devices’ users to watch their favorite videos, when they want it and where they want it.
The process is similar to that of Android devices and is quite simple. Just download the application from the Apple’s App Store (iTunes), install it, launch it, enter your username and password, select server located in China, connect and enjoy!
Watch Tudou Outside China
In 2012 the Chinese version of YouTube, more famously known as Youku, acquired Tudou after which the video sharing platform was renamed Youku Tudou Inc. Still to this day Tudou remains one of the most famous video sharing social platforms, streaming over 15 billion minutes of video reported back in 2007.
The one issue with Tudou now as with Youku remains that you cannot access the websites outside China. I tried accessing the website from my local IP address and while I could browse through videos, I could not stream them:
So, I followed the simple trick and connected my VPN service to a server in China. Ten seconds later I could stream all videos on Tudou.
To watch Tudou outside China here is where to do:
- Sign up to a VPN service … Try our provided solutions!
- Download the VPN provider’s app or configure service manually
- Connect your VPN service to a server in China
- Go to IPlocation.net or WhatismyIPaddress.com, check for DNS leaks
- Now simply logon to Tudou.com and enjoy all your favorite videos
**Note**: Depending on your internet connection, quality of VPN provider, distance from the Chinese server and hardware you might experience bandwidth drops and buffering. Simply reload the video to start playback.
VPN for Youku
Since Youku is a proper streaming platform and also offers content in HD, it requires a good streaming VPN when accessing the service from outside China. The ideal VPN for Youku would be one that satisfies the follows criteria:
- Servers in China
- Turbo speed streaming servers (requires testing speeds)
- Desktop & Mobile VPN apps for easy connectivity
- OpenVPN or iKEV2 tunneling protocols available
Since the Great Firewall inspects and restricts most foreign traffic it is recommended to use either the OpenVPN protocol which is very safe or the iKEV2 protocol which is very fast in addition to being very safe. Some providers including ExpressVPN and IPVanish offer dedicated servers exclusively offered for streaming video from different locations.
How to Watch Youku Outside China
Unblocking Youku is simple and only requires you to have a VPN service with a server in China. Here is a step by step tutorial how to unblock Youku outside China:
- Subscribe to a VPN with China servers
- Download the relevant desktop or mobile app, and sign in
- Connect to a China VPN server
- Go to IPlocation.net, check for DNS leaks (if IP address is not China disconnect & try again)
- Once confirmed logon to youku.com
Upload videos, share with friends and enjoy hours of your favorite content on Youku outside China with a VPN.
Unblock Youku Chrome
While a VPN is the most ideal choice to unblock Youku from outside China primarily due to its ability to keep both your location & IP address secured, you can also use SSL secured browser extensions for Chrome to unblock Youku on Chrome browser. Not many browser extensions however offer a Chinese server to use since breaking through the Great Fire Wall requires proper tech.
After going through the Chrome extensions store I could only come across two reliable add-ons that not only offered high speed streaming for HD video but also experienced the fewest buffer events. The add-ons are as follows:
- Unblock Youku
- Unblock Youku Proxy
Unblock Youku Firefox
Unlike Google Chrome (which has potentially the larger browser app store) there even fewer fixes to unblock Youku with Firefox. There was one good proxy extension that I found that perfectly unblocked Youku from my location, Youku HTML5 Player. The extension can either be downloaded from the Mozilla Firefox extension store or directly from GitHub. Do remember never to use an ad-block extension with Youku HTML5 player, it makes Youku videos buffer a lot.
Another decent and high speed proxy service to unblock Youku on Firefox is the China Channel Firefox add-on. You can download the add-on from the official website (which looks a wee bit shady when you look at it).
How to Watch Youku on Other Devices & Operating Systems?
Watching Youku with VPN is not difficult, but selection of the appropriate VPN provider is. Users are advised to select the VPN provider that is compatible with various devices/platforms like routers, Amazon fire, Android, Linux, Kodi, Windows and others.
We have tested different Youku VPN providers and presented our results in the ranking table mentioned above. These Youku VPNs will help users in unblocking the blocked videos, and will enable them to enjoy their favorite movies, TV series, music, tutorial and other content on different devices and platforms.
Access to every geo-blocked content
If you are planning to purchase a VPN for Youku, you would be amazed with the fact that once subscribed, you can also unblock US Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, BBC iPlayer, and NowTV etc. VPN gives you complete online anonymity by effectively hiding your IP, and protects your data through encryption.
So, you started reading this article looking for ways to unblock geo-blocked content, and we recommended few Youku VPNs. However, we are also obliged to tell our readers the other uses of VPN, so that they can ensure absolute privacy and data security.
Final Words
Have you ever come across YouTube’s error screen telling you “The uploader has not made this video available in your country.” How does it feel? Good, bad or worst? Certainly, having your right to access particular content revoked feels awful!
The Chinese counterpart of YouTube, Youku has also embarked on the same journey. Youku offers many of your favorite Western and Chinese TV shows, music, and movies for free, but only for people living in Mainland China. However, with a VPN you can easily access geo-blocked videos on Youku and other popular video hosting websites.
