YOUTUBE is looking to increase its store of Filipino-made material, yesterday launching a local site and announcing partnerships with content providers.
“The Philippines has embraced the internet in truly remarkable ways … the [country’s] internet population is probably larger than the population of other Southeast Asian countries,” Julian Persaud, managing director for Google Southeast Asia, said during a press conference.
YouTube is a unit of Google, Inc.
“Our investments in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia in general are long-term initiatives. We believe in the Philippines and we believe in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Persaud added.
Adam Smith, Google’s director of product management, noted how popular the site is in the Philippines.
“Filipinos account for a lot of views in the Southeast Asia with tens of millions of views in a day,” Mr. Smith said.
Yesterday’s launch was YouTube’s 34th localized service and the first in Southeast Asia, Mr. Smith said.
“With our launch here, we will improve the experience for Filipinos to highlight what is relevant [to them],” he added.
Mr. Smith noted how over three billion videos are viewed globally in a day and about 48 hours of videos are uploaded every minute.
“YouTube’s platform is for everyone and for anything … By being an open platform, it is able to connect the world together, even allowing for the government to connect to its citizens,” he said.
The localized service will allow for monetization of video views in the Philippines, said Gautam Anand, Google’s director of content partnerships in the Asia-Pacific.
“Content providers have always been able to monetize views … but with the [localized service launched] we could start monetizing views originating from the Philippines,” Mr. Anand said.
Monetization will be done via YouTube partners and ad placements.
YouTube said it had tied up with broadcasting firms ABS-CBN Corp., GMA Network, Inc. and TV5; record labels Star Records, Viva Records and Vicor Music Corp.; production company Oak3 Films Pte. Ltd.; local music group the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; and an online community of local musicians, PinoyTuner.com.
Sec. Ramon “Ricky” A. Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said the government had launched two YouTube channels — RTVM and Official Gazette — that will provide content from public offices.
“It’s my hope that this localized version of YouTube and that these two government channels will become instrumental in spurring the Filipino people to become more involved in governance,” Mr. Carandang said, reading a speech for President Benigno S.C. Aquino III.
Mr. Carandang added that Mr. Aquino would be taking part in the Google-YouTube WordView interview series, which features different world leaders answering online users’ questions.
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By: Kathleen A. Martin
Source: Business World, Oct. 13, 2011
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