“The localized service has been introduced to take advantage of the expanding market for user-generated web content in the Asian country…”
Seoul — YouTube, the world’s most popular online video-sharing website, launched a localized service in South Korea Wednesday to capitalize on the country’s fast-growing user-created content (UCC) market.
“Now Korean users have a site all their own,” YouTube international manager Sakina Arsiwala said at a press conference in Seoul.
“The new service also includes content from local partners and will face tough competition from established local video sites like Pandora TV and portals like Daum.”
YouTube, owned by popular search engine Google Inc., has emerged as a social phenomenon, with hundreds of millions of videos watched daily throughout the world.
Launched two years ago in a small garage in San Francisco, YouTube fast emerged as the world’s largest UCC site where users can upload video clips they created on their own. In late 2006, Google, the world’s No. 1 Internet search company, took over the company for $1.65 billion.
Korea has a high level of broadband Internet penetration and streaming video has been popular for several years. It was one of the first countries in the world where over-the-air TV networks offered their full programming live and on-demand through their Web sites. The emergence of community and portal sites has also made user-generated video popular, although YouTube has not seen much success due to the strong local sites.
YouTube became familiar to many Koreans after a video clip of a self-taught amateur Korean guitarist playing Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” received more than 36 million clicks worldwide last year.
“But it faces tough competition with home-grown user-created content sites, which have dominated the local market.”
Ariswala said it has secured content from local companies for its Korean operation to supplement the vast collection of the US-based operation. “Korea is a very interesting market,” she said its nation’s well-established IT infrastructure and large number of potential users.
However, she declined to elaborate on detailed business targets including market share numbers, saying the company’s main focus is first to build global communities and then consider how to make a profit.
YouTube said in a release that its Korean site is its 19th localized version. Last year YouTube set to expand its international reach with local language interfaces and domain names for several countries including Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. It also launched local sites for the U.K. and Ireland.
Google Korea chief executive Lee Won-Jin told the Yonhap news agency that the launch of the website would drive the spread of South Korea’s popular culture and videos around the world.
He said the launch of YouTube in Korea is meaningful “since it will help bring the Korean wave to a higher level by spreading the country’s popular culture and video content not just in Asia but also in the world.”
“With YouTube’s launch in Korea today we will also be able to provide Korean users with a platform to showcase Korea’s unique culture and lifestyle to the world,” Steve Chen, YouTube’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said in a video appearance.
The announcement comes shortly after Microsoft announced that it is joining forces with web portal Daum Communications and digital equipment manufacturer Celrun to provide internet protocol television (IPTV) services in South Korea.
Technology firms in Asia are increasingly investing in IPTV offerings that provide access to television programs and a range of internet services in a bid to expand their sources of revenue, according to the release.
Despite the launch of its localized service, some skeptics worry that YouTube might not be successful with its brand power only, unless it provides killer applications at a time when the local market is already dominated by homegrown UCC sites.
YouTube has been preparing to start its Korean service for the past year, initially with the aim of launching its local operations in the second half of last year. But it was delayed because the company reportedly wanted to avoid the presidential election in December, believing the election would steal media attention away from its start-up.
Google launched a Korean-language search site in 2000 but has been striving to boost its presence against competition from local firms in one of the world’s most wired societies.
Google, which owns YouTube, has also had mixed success in South Korea but last year began building up a local office in Seoul. In May it renewed its Korean homepage with the addition of a toolbar and animated icons that provide shortcuts to site features. The update represents the furthest Google has moved from its classic minimalist design on any nation pages.
Through YouTube at www.youtube.co.kr, Korean users will be able to view not just content uploaded by their hometown neighbors but the vast library of the U.S.-based UCC site, Ariswala said.
“Some 70 percent of Korean homes have high-speed Internet access but most prefer local search engines.”
“The local service launch was announced in a press conference held in downtown Seoul.”