YouTube, the world’s largest online video sharing community, is out with yet another announcement, which relates to the company launching a localized service for the Philippines. The location settings, placed at the bottom of the YouTube homepage, now has this option, which would allow users to go to the localized Philippine YouTube site. YouTube, with this extension has increased its localized count to 33.
Like every other localized site, when one visits the brand new YouTube Philippines, they would be offered a local interface to easily and quickly find videos, most relevant to Filipinos. However, the viewers would not be limited to the local content only, as expanded content would be available from YouTube’s global partners too.
The new online space created for the national community would guarantee better viewer-ship for the original creators. Filipino creators would thus get an opportunity to showcast their talent and to increase their exposure.
Politically, this could have an effect too, as with this launch, concurrently there would be updated presidential channels from President Aquino at www.youtube.com/govph and www.youtube.com/rtvmalacanang. The administration of the Philippines president would leverage YouTube to reach out to the online Filipino community within the country and around the world. Additionally, the president himself willtake part in this powerful media tool’s World View live interview series (http://www.youtube.com/worldview) where the questions come directly from citizens.
Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said, “Our government recognizes the significant impact of the Internet on the quality of life of 30 million Filipino users. The presidential channel provides a powerful, relevant way to demonstrate good governance and transparency — the cornerstone of this administration — and its contribution to poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth.”
Apart from the political partnership, YouTube has even inked the deal with top Filipino media companies, including ABS-CBN, GMA Network Inc., and TV5. Moreover, the Google vidoe portal has extended its reach to rope in VIVA Records, PinoyTuner, Vicor Records, Star Records, and Oak3 as partners. The deal might benefit YouTube, but more than that, it will help these partners to establish a strong presence on YouTube to easily distribute their content and grow their audience.
Jimmy Duavit, president and COO of GMA Network Inc. detailed that their new YouTube Channel would give them an opportunity to reach out to viewers through online video, whether the audience is in the Philippines or anywhere else around the world. He further added, “It is a pleasure to be one of YouTube’s first Filipino partners, and we look forward to sharing some of our best content, including clips of our flagship newscasts 24 Oras from GMA and State of the Nation from GMANews TV, as well as highlights of top-rating GMA entertainment programs such as Amaya and Munting Heredera.”
YouTube even has provision made for the music artists to earn via YouTube. A licensing agreement has been signed between the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (FILSCAP) and YouTube, which would allow revenue to flow in the kitty of the music artists. The generation of revenue would be when ads would be displayed against YouTube partner’s videos.
Debbie Gaite, general manager of FILSCAP said, “From now on, they will receive fair payment for the use of their works on YouTube which is a very positive step for our songwriters and publishers and, more broadly, the Internet.”
Content creators will be able to apply online for the program at http://www.youtube.com/creators/partner.html.