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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[...] 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 « on June 19th, 2007 at 2:02 am - Permalink
[...] Youtube going global. The process makes sense. First translate the UI (easy). Later make content in different locales specific to that locale (categories, comments, …). [...]
Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease » Blog Archive on June 19th, 2007 at 3:18 am - Permalink
“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 on June 19th, 2007 at 7:38 am - Permalink
[...] Sullivan’s Daily Dish, Venture Beat, Duct Tape Marketing, Reel Pop Blog, Read Write Web, New Tee Vee, Web Worker Daily, Infectious Greed and many, many more great sites in process to partner with the [...]
A Few Birthday Candles « Sphere on June 19th, 2007 at 10:50 am - Permalink
[...] In the graph above, the size of the point indicates the total amount of time online spent watching video, in which France led the way. American viewers only spent 6 percent of their time online watching video, maybe a result of generally slower broadband than is available in the European countries. The numbers confirm that YouTube was smart to finally localize today. [...]
NewTeeVee U.K., Teens Leading in Online Video Viewing « on June 19th, 2007 at 12:01 pm - Permalink
[...] and do not welcome the new YouTube “French domain” targeted at their home country”. At NewTeeVee Liz Gannes adds that YouTube previously has run into trouble with governments who disagree with [...]
YouTube - Now in a National Costume « PodTech Network on June 19th, 2007 at 12:43 pm - Permalink
[...] A team from Dailymotion showed up to the Google press event yesterday (machine translation) where the new French version of YouTube was being announced. The video below, “Hello YouTube,” is conveniently subtitled in [...]
NewTeeVee DailyMotion et YouTube ont ‘le drame’ « on June 20th, 2007 at 11:53 am - Permalink
[...] function as well and all the social functions as rating, comments etc. has also become local. Read more or see for your self the Spanish [...]
YouTube Goes Local and in to AppleTV « Fri TV on June 21st, 2007 at 12:39 am - Permalink
[...] 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 practice on June 21st, 2007 at 4:56 pm - Permalink
[...] law and custom, according Chad Hurley in an interview with my colleague Liz Gannes regarding YouTube’s recent localization efforts. The parent company is simultaneously lobbying the U.S. government to pressure foreign governments [...]
NewTeeVee Thailand Lifting YouTube Ban « on June 25th, 2007 at 12:13 pm - Permalink
[...] presence, following competitor YouTube coming onto its home turf as part of the U.S. leader’s international expansion last month. Dailymotion has had a customized homepage for the United States since March of this [...]
NewTeeVee Startup Watch: Dailymotion’s U.S. Push « on July 10th, 2007 at 4:50 am - Permalink
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