YouTube is opening up its digital doors to more overseas countries. Google’s online video site (which recently made improvements to its thumbnail image selection) has expanded globally with more local versions of its site based in west Asia, the Baltics, and the Adriatics.
In a company blog post, YouTube writes how roughly 80% of the site’s billions of daily video views come from outside the U.S. In order to better serve these international viewers and connect them with their local YouTube communities, Google’s online video site launched local country versions in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, as well as more countries in the Baltics (like Lithuania) and Adriatics (like Serbia and Bulgaria). Across the entire world, YouTube now runs 85 total local versions of its site, which is available in 76 different languages.
An added benefit of these new local video hubs means creators in those regions can start benefiting from YouTube’s monetization and creator offerings. Creators such as Kazakhstan’s DynastyofCat (a DIY channel with over 300,000 subscribers) and Belarus-based vlogger DimaErmuzevich (more than 400,000 subscribers) can now become YouTube partners, monetize their content, access the YouTube Creator Academy, connect in the Creator Community forums, and more.
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“We hope that this will allow more creators to bring more of their ideas and talents to YouTube for all of us to enjoy,” wrote YouTube’s Head of EMEA Online Partnerships Marenco Kemp in the company blog post. “So whether you’re viewing us from youtube.by, youtube.kz, or youtube.bg, you’ve now got your own YouTube that not only connects you with a community of a billion people, but helps you see the creativity going on right in your backyard.”
