ONLINE video website PPTV has raised US$250 million to grow content and set up a data center, the company said yesterday in a statement.

It was another big move for investors in the booming online video market, which was fueled by the United States listing of Youku.com at the end of last year.

Japan-based Softbank is one of PPTV's investors. The Beijing-based firm's development plan in 2011 includes a super-scaled, highly concurrent and reliable video cloud data center, an open and professional releasing platform for videos and more popular and legal contents, according to Yao Xin, president and founder of PPTV.

Online video is one of the hottest sectors to invest in, research firm Zero2IPO said.