YouTube to mine Malaysian talent

Its new Malaysia-specific service will help talented locals increase their exposure and boost their income

KUALA LUMPUR: YouTube, the world’s largest online video sharing community, has launched a service localised for Malaysia, giving creative Malaysians the opportunity to increase their exposure and income.

Users can find videos relevant to Malaysia easily and quickly by going to www.youtube.com.my or choosing “Malaysia” as the location setting at the bottom of the YouTube.com homepage.

Adam Smith, Director of Product Management for YouTube in the Asia-Pacific region, said in his announcement:

“Over the last few years Malaysians have been watching YouTube in huge numbers, and by launching a version of the site optimised for Malaysia today, we aim to create an even more relevant local YouTube experience.

“Malaysian personalities and musicians have been creating extremely memorable videos, some of which are known the world over. We hope that establishing YouTube in Malaysia and working with local partners will result in even more export of the country’s great talent and creative videos.”

With its local partners Astro Malaysia and KRU Studios, YouTube will give Malaysian composers and performers the opportunity to make money from their videos. Revenue is generated when advertisments are displayed on YouTube videos. Malaysian authors will now receive payment from their associations when rights holders distribute their work.

YouTube, based in California, is a subsidiary of Google Inc. It has more than 800 million users. Altogether, these users view four billion videos a day and spend three billion hours a month. In 2011, the site had more than one trillion views.

Aneesa Alphonsus