Video service execs plead guilty to peddling pornography online

The CEO and other managers of online video service Qvod Friday admitted spreading pornography on the Internet.

Wang Xin and three other managers confessed at the opening of their trial in the Haidian District People’s Court of Beijing, according to a post on the court’s Sina Weibo account.

“We confess, nothing to defend,” said the Qvod representative at the trial.

“I would like to apologize to the users of Qvod who we hurt … I hope our case serves as a warning to the industry,” Wang said.

The court said that it will rule on the case at a later date.

Preliminary investigations show that the company had been spreading porn and pirated content through the popular video player since the end of 2012, and profited from user fees and advertisements.

The company earned hundreds of millions of yuan, and Wang and his co-accused earned large sums of money, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement in January.

Using cloud technologies, Qvod allowed users to store and upload videos of up to 1,000 GB.

Police arrested 10 people in April 2014, but Wang fled abroad. He was arrested on August 7 in South Korea and deported to China the following day.

The Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on pornography. Campaigns have been launched to inspect and shut down erring websites.