Online video community YouTube this week announced plans to launch a series of localised websites, and Ireland will be among the first of nine countries to receive a local version of the service. Eamon McGranereports.
Each of the YouTube sites will be fully translated, with local homepages and search functions.
According to co-founder and chief executive Chad Hurley, this will make YouTube more accessible and interesting to an international audience.
"We are expanding upon our already global platform to make it even more relevant for our local communities," he said.
The long-term plan is to make each site a local experience that allows country-specific video rankings and comments.
In addition to Ireland, the other countries in the first phase are Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Britain.
Patrick Walker, head of video partnerships for Google in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told The Irish Times that Ireland was selected for participation in phase one of the localisation plan because it was an English-speaking country and therefore easier to manage in terms of language translation, and because Google has a base here.
In addition, he said: "Even though Ireland isn't included often in our initial launches, in regards to YouTube, there's a very passionate creative community in Ireland, and we have a lot of users from Ireland on YouTube who've been very active in using the platform.
"We have made a big investment in Ireland and definitely wanted it to be included in the first phase."
In preparation for the international launch, YouTube has signed deals with several content partners, including broadcasters such as the BBC, France 24, Spain's Antena 3 and Cuatro TV, Portugal's RTP, and VPRO and NPO of The Netherlands. Other providers who have signed content agreements include football clubs such as Chelsea, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
No Irish content provider has signed up yet. However, Mr Walker revealed that the company was in talks with several potential content partners, including RTÉ.
"We have spoken to them and we're in ongoing talks," he said, adding: "The team is quite small and the site localisation efforts were directed more at non-English-speaking countries such as France and The Netherlands."
However, he said: "We'd love to get something going with [ RTÉ], and I believe they are interested in leveraging the platform."
