Monday, April 02, 2012

Google MENA launches YouTube UAE

Google has recently announced the launched of YouTube UAE. The Emirates now joins other Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and Saudia Arabia in having a localized version of the popular video sharing website. Full press release below.

Press Release:

It’s amazing to think that just six years ago, YouTube didn’t exist. Since then, the video platform has assembled sights and sounds from around the world — the largest collection of its kind. Today, we are pleased to announce a new user experience in the Emirates by launching YouTube.co.ae – a local version of YouTube.

A local version of YouTube means that people who visit the site will see on the homepage the most popular videos in the UAE along with those that are rising in popularity. If you create and upload a video, other people in the UAE– and possibly around the world — are more likely to be able to find and watch your creation.

From YouTube’s inception, people in the Middle East have been active members of the global community, both watching and uploading countless videos. YouTube in MENA is growing exponentially with more the number of playbacks doubling in the past year and users in MENA upload one hour of video per minute. There are 167 million video views a day in MENA, putting the region in the number two spot in the world, behind the U.S. and ahead of Brazil.

“We have seen enormous growth for YouTube in the MENA region and expect this expansion to continue even more significantly with the launch of the UAE domain.” said Ari kesisoglu, Managing Director, Middle East North Africa at Google.  “A primary objective for us is to encourage local content from regional users, which we believe will be fuelled by this latest development.”

Even though YouTube is a global service, we try to make it as local as possible. In 2010, we offered Arabic as a language choice for the first time. In 2011, we deepened the local YouTube experience by providing local versions of YouTube in seven countries in the Middle East: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen. We now proudly add the UAE to this list.

Of course, the YouTube community reflects the whole world, with its vast differences of ethnicity, religion, nationality, language, politics and more. Not everything on YouTube will please everyone, and we encourage people to actively participate, learntherules and flag content that might violate them. In the end, YouTube is a place where people go to exchange all kinds of ideas, and we want Emiratis to join the conversation, bringing their rich content to users around the world.

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