YouTube launches Romanian version

YouTube officially launched today YouTube Romania platform for Romanian content creators, broadcasters, advertising agencies and brands, which will post the most popular local videos.

“Numerous members of the global YouTube community are already viewing Romanian content. The launch of the local YouTube version will open new opportunities for talented creators in the country, who can be discovered easier, both in Romania and anywhere else worldwide. Thus, users will have easier access to quality content ‘made in Romania,” according to Dan Bulucea, country manager Google Romania.

YouTube has recently surpassed the threshold of 1 billion users per month. More than a quarter of the total views on YouTube come from mobile devices. Every minute, 72 hours of video content are uploaded.

YouTube is present in 53 countries and 61 languages. Currently, 70 percent of the traffic on YouTube comes from outside the United States.

“Romanians are great consumers of online video,” said Bulucea, without offering more information either about the number of Romanian YouTube accounts or the average time Romanians spend on the platform.

“Nearly all those who have internet connection in Romania also watch YouTube. (…) Romania is very well represented regarding YouTube usage, we are a star in the region,” he added.

Internet World Stats data from October 2012 indicate there were 8,578,484 internet users in Romania, representing 39.2 percent of the population, in mid 2012.

According to Alexa.com, YouTube ranks on the 4th place in the top of 500 sites in Romania.

At the moment, more than 1 million advertising agents use the Google announcement platforms, most being small companies. “We strongly believe the launch of YouTube.ro will be very beneficial for the advertising market in Romania,” said Bulucea.

The launch of YouTube in Romania gives the opportunity to local advertisers and advertising agencies to reach their target audience using new video ad models.

“This is an audience that does not watch TV anymore, they are pretty young, rich, and the ratio of males and females is similar,” said Bulucea.

The ads will not spoil the viewing experience, say company officials. YouTube introduced the True View format, which allows users to close the ads they do not want to see. “We are transforming advertisers into content creators. This means that advertisers will have to try harder to be creative,” said Bulucea.

Content creators will also have at their disposal the YouTube Analytics tool that allows them to adjust their content based on feedback from viewers.

YouTube signed a licensing agreement with the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania- the Association for Copyright, which will allow artists to obtain revenues from the views of their videos on YouTube.

Record labels Roton, Cat Music, Hahaha Production, MediaPro Music decided to publish on YouTube their content. There is also such an agreement in place with the Romanian public television, and positive feedback from all the broadcasters with whom discussions have taken place so far.

A new YouTube design was launched two months ago so that it will be more accessible to viewers. The first page of YouTube looks different for any user, as the content is customized according to the preferences of any logged user.

In 2011, YouTube registered over 1 trillion views, which represents approximately 140 views for each person on earth. “We estimate that in one year over 90 percent of the internet traffic will be video. This ecosystem can be huge in Romania as well,” said Damien Viel, Youtube & Google video head of sales – Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“People share on YouTube more than on any other platform in the world and the content is positive- for every dislike there are 10 other likes. Furthermore, 30 percent of the users push the Share button after watching a video, and every minute, over 700 users redistribute the content via Twitter,” said Viel.

Otilia Haraga

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