Youku 优酷 Scraper - Video Search, Video & Channel Details

Youku Scraper reads public data from Youku (优酷), one of China's largest video platforms: it searches videos by keyword, returns the details of any video and the public channel profile of any uploader, as clean, flat JSON records. It is built for media researchers, content and MCN teams, marketers and developers who need Chinese video data without a Youku account. No Youku account, API keys, proxies or cookies are needed.

Pricing is pay-per-event: $0.005 per video found by search and $0.025 per video or channel profile looked up by ID, plus a $0.02 start fee per run. 100 search results cost about $0.52.

What is Youku?

Youku (优酷) is a Chinese video platform. It hosts licensed series, films and documentaries as well as videos uploaded by creators (UGC). Every video has an ID, and every uploader has a channel with a user ID, followers and likes.

What data can you get?

The Actor has three modes, chosen with mode:

• search (default) finds videos by keyword (type is video), about 28 per page.
• video returns the details of videos you name by ID or link (type is videoDetail).
• profile returns the public channel profile of uploaders you name by ID or link (type is profile).

Video fields (mode: search)

Field	What it is
videoId, url	Video ID (use it as input of video mode) and the link to the video page
title	Video title (Chinese)
coverUrl	Cover image link
durationSeconds	Video length in seconds
publishedText	When the video was published as the search result shows it, for example 4天前 (4 days ago)
danmakuCount	Danmaku (on-screen comments) of the video
showId	ID of the series the video belongs to; empty for stand-alone uploads
uploaderId, uploaderName, uploaderAvatar	Uploader ID (use it as input of profile mode), name and avatar link
searchKeyword	The keyword that found the video

Video detail fields (mode: video)

Field	What it is
videoId, url, title, coverUrl, durationSeconds	As in search mode
publishedAt	Exact publish time, ISO 8601 UTC
category, videoType	Youku category (for example 纪录片) and kind of video (for example 正片, a full episode)
likeCount, commentCount	Likes and comments of the video
showId, showName, episodeNumber, episodeTotal	The series the video belongs to, its episode number and episode count
genres, areas, releaseYear, description	Genres, production regions, release year and synopsis of the series
uploaderId, uploaderName, uploaderAvatar, uploaderVerification, uploaderFollowerCount	The uploader's public card: ID, name, avatar, verification label and followers

Profile fields (mode: profile)

Field	What it is
userId, numericUserId, name, avatar	IDs, channel name and avatar link
description	The channel bio exactly as published
verification	Verification label, for example 机构认证 (organisation) or 大鱼号认证作者
followerCount, followingCount, likeCount	Followers, accounts followed and total likes received
genderCode	Gender code as Youku shows it (1 or 2)
ipLocation	IP location shown on the channel page

How to use Youku Scraper

1. Open the Actor on Apify and click Try for free (or Start).
2. Choose a Mode: search videos (search), details of videos (video) or profiles of uploaders (profile).
3. For search, enter one or more words in Keywords. For video, enter video IDs or links such as https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==.html in Videos. For profile, enter uploader IDs (the uploaderId of search and video records) in Uploaders.
4. Set Max results to the total number of records you want for the run.
5. Click Start, then open the Videos, Video details or Channel profiles view of the dataset and export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch it through the API.

The Actor also runs with an empty input: {} searches for 纪录片 (documentary), a quick way to see the output format.

A common workflow is to search a topic, then look up the videoId of interesting videos in video mode and their uploaderId in profile mode.

Input

Field	Type	Required	What it does	Default
mode	string	Optional	search, video or profile	prefilled with search; when left out, video if videos is given, profile if users is given, otherwise search. Giving more than one of the three lists without mode is an error.
keywords	array of strings	Optional	Used in search mode. Videos are collected keyword by keyword, page by page, until maxResults is reached.	Falls back to 纪录片 when empty
videos	array of strings	Needed for video mode	Video IDs or links containing id_<ID>.	none
users	array of strings	Needed for profile mode	Uploader IDs, or channel links such as https://i.youku.com/i/<ID> or links containing uid=<ID>.	none
maxResults	integer	Optional	Maximum number of records to return in total for this run, from 1 to 5000. The run stops as soon as it is reached. You are charged per record returned.	20

Example: search videos

{"mode": "search", "keywords": ["纪录片", "美食"], "maxResults": 100}

Example: details of videos

{"mode": "video", "videos": ["XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==", "https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU4MTk3NTI0OA==.html"]}

Example: profile of an uploader

{"mode": "profile", "users": ["UMTU5MjkzNTE2NzI="]}

Output example

{
  "type": "video",
  "videoId": "XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==",
  "url": "https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==.html",
  "title": "雨林巨物",
  "coverUrl": "https://vthumb.ykimg.com/054106016AD9EDEA1F0B3301A404C7FA",
  "durationSeconds": 2495,
  "publishedText": "前天",
  "danmakuCount": 0,
  "showId": "fcac9491c8614d6da993",
  "uploaderId": "UMTU5MjkzNTE2NzI=",
  "uploaderName": "示例频道",
  "uploaderAvatar": "https://m.ykimg.com/example-avatar",
  "searchKeyword": "纪录片"
}

{
  "type": "videoDetail",
  "videoId": "XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==",
  "url": "https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==.html",
  "title": "雨林巨物",
  "coverUrl": "https://m.ykimg.com/054101016A9E6EE7334D992488A9C6D1",
  "durationSeconds": 2495,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-24T16:00:01Z",
  "category": "纪录片",
  "videoType": "正片",
  "likeCount": 0,
  "commentCount": 0,
  "showId": "fcac9491c8614d6da993",
  "showName": "追踪巨型鱼 第五季",
  "episodeNumber": 7,
  "episodeTotal": 8,
  "genres": ["探险", "自然"],
  "areas": ["加拿大"],
  "releaseYear": 2026,
  "description": "《追踪巨型鱼 第五季》跟随西里尔深入全球最偏远危险的水域……",
  "uploaderId": "UMTU5MjkzNTE2NzI=",
  "uploaderName": "示例频道",
  "uploaderAvatar": "https://m.ykimg.com/example-avatar",
  "uploaderVerification": "机构认证",
  "uploaderFollowerCount": 225
}

{
  "type": "profile",
  "userId": "UMTU5MjkzNTE2NzI=",
  "numericUserId": "3982337918",
  "name": "示例频道",
  "avatar": "https://m.ykimg.com/example-avatar",
  "description": "做优质精品短视频",
  "verification": "机构认证",
  "followerCount": 225,
  "followingCount": 0,
  "likeCount": 392,
  "genderCode": 2,
  "ipLocation": "北京"
}

How much does it cost?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. These are the charge events:

Event	Price (USD)	When it is charged
run-start	$0.02	Once per run, charged when the first request to the data source succeeds, even if that request returns nothing. It is not charged when the data source fails from the start, or when your spending limit cannot cover it. Each further keyword, video or uploader the run actually reaches pays one more start fee. That fee is charged before its first request and is kept even if it then fails or returns nothing. A later keyword, video or uploader is only reached when the earlier ones did not fill maxResults.
result	$0.005	For each video returned by search mode.
detail	$0.025	For each video returned by video mode and for each channel profile returned by profile mode.

Worked examples:

• 100 videos from one keyword cost $0.02 + 100 × $0.005 = $0.52. Two keywords that together fill 100 videos cost $0.04 + 100 × $0.005 = $0.54.
• 10 videos in video mode cost 10 × $0.02 (the run's start fee and one more for each further video) + 10 × $0.025 = $0.45.
• 5 channel profiles cost 5 × $0.02 + 5 × $0.025 = $0.225.

You never pay for more than maxResults records, and you are never charged for records that were not delivered. The run stops by itself if your spending limit is reached.

On the free Apify plan, every run returns a sample dataset: a real result of this Actor's prefilled input, captured on the date shown in the run status, so you can see exactly what the output looks like. Your own input is not used and nothing is charged. To run your own queries, use any paid Apify plan.

Use cases

• Content and trend research: see which videos and uploaders appear for a topic on Youku, and how long they run.
• Creator discovery: find uploaders by the videos they publish, then read their follower count, likes and verification in profile mode.
• Catalogue and series tracking: follow the episodes, genres, regions and synopsis of series and documentaries.
• Media monitoring: check regularly which videos Youku returns for a brand, a title or a person.
• AI and data projects: collect Chinese video titles, categories and metadata for search, classification and recommendation models.

Integrations and API

You can start runs from your own code through the Apify API, schedule them on the Apify platform (for example a weekly keyword check), and send results to other tools with Apify integrations and webhooks. Results are stored in a dataset you can download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Python example using the apify-client package:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("clover_folktale/youku-scraper").call(run_input={
    "mode": "search",
    "keywords": ["纪录片"],
    "maxResults": 100,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Tips and limits

• Reliability. The Actor retries transient errors on its own and stops cleanly instead of failing half-way. It never charges for records it did not deliver.
• Speed. A search page holds about 28 videos, so large runs make many requests; expect roughly 2-5 seconds per page.
• Run size. maxResults is the total for the whole run (1 to 5000, default 20). With several keywords, IDs or uploaders, records are collected one after the other until the total is reached.
• Search results. Search mode returns video cards: ID, title, cover, length, relative publish time, danmaku count and uploader. Likes, comments and the exact publish time come with video mode. A page with fewer than 5 new videos (videos not already returned in this run), ends the listing.
• No play counts. Youku does not show a play count on these pages, so none is returned.
• Series and stand-alone videos. For an episode of a series, description, genres, areas and releaseYear describe the series. For a stand-alone upload they are empty.
• Two forms of one uploader ID. The search result and the video page can show different forms of the same uploader ID. profile mode accepts both, and returns the form Youku uses on the channel page in userId.
• Channel profiles. The bio is the text the channel published. A user ID Youku does not know is skipped as nothing found. The profile does not include a video count.
• Video details. One request per video. A video ID Youku does not know is asked a few times and then skipped as nothing found; no detail is charged for it; the start fee of a further ID is kept.
• Free plan. Every run on the free Apify plan returns a stored sample dataset (a real result of the prefilled input); your own input is not used and nothing is charged. Use any paid Apify plan to run your own queries.
• Privacy. Only public data is returned: what anyone sees on Youku video and channel pages. No private messages, no contact data beyond what a channel publishes in its bio.

FAQ

Do I need a Youku account, cookies or an API key?

No. You only need an Apify account to run the Actor.

Is this the official Youku API?

No. This Actor is not affiliated with Youku. It is an independent tool that collects public data and returns it as structured JSON.

Is it legal to scrape Youku?

The Actor only returns public data that anyone can see on Youku. It does not return private messages or account data. You are responsible for how you use the data and for following the laws and rules that apply to you.

How fresh is the data?

The data is collected live during each run.

Where do I find a video ID or an uploader ID?

In the links and in search results: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==.html is video XNjU1NTAzMDQ5Ng==. Search records carry videoId and uploaderId, ready to use as input.

Why are some fields empty?

Stand-alone uploads have no series, so showName, genres and the like are empty. Gender, IP location and a bio are shown only when the channel has them.

How many results can I get?

You can set maxResults up to 5000 per run. A keyword with fewer matches returns what exists.

Can I schedule runs and export the data?

Yes. You can schedule runs on Apify, start them through the API, and export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Something is missing. How do I ask for it?

Missing a field or a mode? Open an issue from the Actor page and it will be looked at.

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