Blacklist of video websites published: will Tudou.com be ordered to shut down?

China ordered 25 video-sharing Web sites to halt service on Thursday and issued warnings to dozens more, a sign that Beijing is tightening control over online content in a way that could spook some investors in the sector.

Among those warned was Tudou.com, which has received funding from heavyweight venture-capital firm IDG. The sites were warned they need to comply with new regulations.

Sequoia, IDG and Steamboat Ventures are among the venture-capital firms that have rushed into China's Internet market in an attempt to nurture a local version of YouTube. China is now estimated to be the world's biggest Internet market.

But late last year, the Chinese government said only entities wholly or partly state-owned would be able to obtain licenses to distribute audio-visual content over information networks.