NBC and News Corp have launched the beta version of Hulu.com, a new TV and video sharing website reportedly to challenge popular video sharing website YouTube.
Not available to those outside US
But non-US residence however will not be able to utilise the new platform as the site will only be made available to those living in the US or its territories.
Even the promotional ads on Hulu’s website will not be available for viewing outside the US.
Why Hulu?
Jason Kilar, CEO, Hulu, wrote way back in August: “Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building”.
Okay, since none of the Hulu features will be made available to non-US residence, I won’t go into details about what Hulu has to offer, let me talk instead about the meaning of the word hulu in my part of the world.
The various meaning of hulu
Hulu, a common noun, has several meaning. In Malay, it means “upstream” or the upper part of the river. It can also mean “handle” as in knife handle.
You can also expand the world hulu to become penghulu or village head.
You can also use it in the context of Malay phrase ke hulu ke hilir — literally “going up river down river” — meaning, a person who likes to be “here and there but going actually nowhere” (for want of better translation).
The word “hulu” can also be spelled as ulu, which also means “upstream” but it carries the connotation of a place being in remote and under-developed area. We could, for instance use “Ulu Amazon” in this context to describe places in the remote parts of the Amazon.
Hence, semi-primitive tribes living in remote places are commonly refered to as “Orang Ulu” — man from the remote place.
Among my tribe — I’m a native of Borneo, by the way — “hulu” can also be spelled tulu as well as ulu, meaning “head”. You can also add the letter o and n to the word ulu to make it uluon, meaning nursing a hangover.
Hulu also translates into various meaning in different cultures. The guys over at TechCrunch came up with what could be a definitive list of the meaning of the world hulu across the world cultures.
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