Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 2:00 AM PT

YouTube’s Global Ambitions Get Local

YouTube Tuesday is rolling out local versions of its video site in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K. Each new version of the site has been translated with a localized home page and search function, with local comments, rankings, and categories to be added at a later date.

The announcement was expected after various leaks and hints, and we had predicted it last week. While YouTube has done more than anyone to bring online video to a global scale, it trails LiveUniverse in the U.K. and Dailymotion in France.

The majority of YouTube traffic already comes from international countries, said YouTube co-founder and CTO Steve Chen in an interview Monday. “But due to lack of resources and international expertise when YouTube was an independent company, we could never have really gone down this path,” he explained.

As for its international experience, YouTube has previously run into trouble with governments who disagree with content posted to its site, and often capitulates to their idea of what is appropriate. The new rollouts do not include any change to how YouTube treats such situations, according to YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley. “At the end of the day we want to always maintain a platform that respects local laws and customs,” he said.

The initiative is part of the ongoing Google-ization of YouTube, and is led by YouTube’s new international manager, Sakina Arsiwala, who previously managed international search for Google.

YouTube’s broadcast partners in the rollout countries, many of which come from previously unannounced deals, include the BBC, France 24, the Spanish Antena 3 and Cuatro TV, the Portuguese RTP, the Dutch VPRO and NPO; European football clubs such as Chelsea FC, AC Milan, Barcelona FC and Real Madrid; and non-profit organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, UNHCR and Medecins du Monde, the company said via email.

Google has been busy getting its video ducks in a row. Last week the company ramped up Google Video as a search engine — further differentiating it from YouTube’s approach to community and content. Also, YouTube added somewhat limited remixing tools and a beta interface.

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Topic: Money & Power

Comments (2)

“At the end of the day, we think new online publishing tools like YouTube have the potential to give strength to voices in the wilderness all around the world – to help the little people get their messages out to a global audience. We’re proud to be part of these cultural changes of historic proportion and we’re willing to take what to us are minor risks because we’re not just in this for the money.” – Oh no! That’s not what he said! He said “At the end of the day we want to always maintain a platform that respects local laws and customs.”

Well, I hope no homosexuals threatened with hanging in the Middle East or women scheduled to be stoned to death in Africa try asking for international support on YouTube any time soon. They’d have better chances with Oprah. Three cheers for new media! Yuck!

Marshall Kirkpatrick — 7:38 AM on June 19, 2007 Reply
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what is celexa used for — 2:07 PM on July 18, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (10)

[...] Written by Om Malik Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 2:02 AM PT | No comments As part of YouTube’s assimilation into Google, the fast growing video site is going international and is rolling out local versions of its video site in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K. Each new version of the site has been translated with a localized home page and search function, with local comments, rankings, and categories to be added at a later date. More details over on NewTeeVee. [...]

GigaOM What’s on GigaNET « — 2:02 AM on June 19, 2007
[...] Youtube going global. The process makes sense. First translate the UI (easy). Later make content in different locales specific to that locale (categories, comments, …). [...]

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[...] this week; and that would be four major developments of YouTube. First of all, YouTube goes local: concept and language are translated and local versions of it appeared for Brazil, Japan and several European countries. Also, with a [...]

Youtubing: Turning a brand into a cultural… — 4:56 PM on June 21, 2007
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