YouTube Launches Indian Edition To Woo Surfers
New Delhi – Google owned popular online video video-sharing site YouTube on Wednesday, started its operations in India by launching an Indian version of its site at www.youtube.co.in, the company announced.
“Google’s local edition of YouTube would certainly send noises down the competition’s spine with its localized home page plus search functions.”
The new YouTube site for India goes live, boasts a localized homepage and search functions, allowing users to create and share videos, discover the most popular and relevant videos in India, providing a platform to share Indian culture and lifestyle with the largest online video community globally.
This project is set to benefit students; YouTube India is reaching directly to Indian students, as Google India has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology for uploading classroom lectures for free.
“Companies like YouTube or an agency which has a large bandwidth and storage are helping us for free for distribution and disseminations and it is an enormous cost savings for us,” said Dr. Mangala Krishnan, Professor, IIT, Chennai.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Steve Chen, chief technology officer and co-founder of YouTube, said, “We are very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to India considering the passion of users here for music and entertainment. For a culture that is steeped both in video and in storytelling, and where everyone has a voice — YouTube India will not only offer Indian users more relevant content but also provide a platform to share India’s unique and diverse culture and lifestyle with the largest online video community in the world.”
YouTube’s international manager Sakina Arsiwala said YouTube India would benefit from an entirely local experience highlighting and featuring the content and functionality most desired by the Indian users.
The site caters to the Indian public with local features such as promoted videos, featured videos, videos tab and community tab delivering a variety of videos for the Indian public, including homepage promotions, localized user interface and help centre, user support and community features such as video ratings, sharing and content flagging, YouTube India will make it easier for the Indian YouTube community to search and view videos from India.
It is also very simple to upload the videos of your own and express your creativity to the world. Additionally, content uploaded by users in India would show up as top favorite videos and recommended content on the local YouTube site viewed by the general audiences teamed up with help center, user support and community features.
“YouTube also allows anyone with a simple web camera or even a cell phone to create content, connect, and converse with each other through the medium of video. It provides a powerful way for people to express themselves. From a home video to a magic show to classroom lectures or working professionals connecting with their families in another city, YouTube is about communication and not just entertainment,” Arsiwala said.
“Google India is also joining hands with media partners around the country to establish revenue sharing programs.”
“With YouTube now monetizing their content and sharing their revenues with partners like us in a very transparent way. It has opened up a completely new revenue stream for content owners and partners like us,” said Rajat Barjatya, MD, Rajshri Media.
A subsidiary of Google, YouTube India has already signed partnerships with various firms including Eros Entertainment, Rajshri Films, IIFA, the Ministry of Tourism, IIT Delhi, NDTV, UTV, Zoom TV, India TV and Krishcricket, to name a few, and would continue to work with a range of partners, across a range of genres to bring Indian content to more people in new ways. It also aims to facilitate connections among large non-resident Indian community.
This is just the beginning of YouTube’s baby steps in India. It plans to spread its wings wide apart in partnership with various other companies and promises to deliver the best and a platter of choices to the Indian market.
Google India is also taking into consideration on monetizing plans where anybody can earn money from their uploaded content.
“Certainly we are interested in investigating ways to bring multiple ways to our partners and customers to monetize their presence in digital world in India as well,” said Shailesh Rao, CEO, Google India.
Internationally, YouTube has struck numerous partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA, The Sundance Channel and many more.
YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees and within a year of its launch it was acquired by Google Inc. for around $1.65 billion in November 2006.