YouTube international localization

YouTube’s founders, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, were in Paris last week where they announced they’d be creating “localized” YouTube in seven languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish and Dutch.

This comes a month after SytemSeminarTV started posting video content in French, German, Russian, Lithuanian, and Ukranian.

Why foreign language content?

Simple. That’s where the growth is.
More Int

Many people around the world speak English, but if want to hit them where their heart is, speak to them in their own language. Or at the very least introduce yourself in their language and then continue the conversation in English.

Here’s a sample in German

More International videos here

– Ken McCarthy

P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.

If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.

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4 Responses to YouTube international localization

  1. Ed Anderson June 26, 2007 at 12:12 pm #

    International video sounds great since we export to over 90 countries. Question: Does youtube have translators??

  2. austin01 June 26, 2007 at 12:17 pm #

    You said in your cover message “It’s the exact same principle as article marketing: Put your content on other people’s sites with link back to you.”
    Where is the link back to your website and how do your post or engineer the link on YouTube or other sites?

  3. Ken McCarthy June 26, 2007 at 9:25 pm #

    I’m using YouTube for the moment because its easy. You can build ad copy and links to your site in your YouTube description, but ideally you’d host your own video with your own custom player that makes it easy to take viewers from the video to your ad.
    Does YouTube have translators as in does it offer a translation service? No.
    Here’s the e-mail I sent that pointed people to this post. I should answer your questions:
    Here’s an EASY way to localize your
    content. The beauty of it is that it
    doesn’t require hiring translators.
    How to:
    1. Get your ecstatically happy customers
    who are native in another language
    to give you a video testimonial.
    2. Post it to your web site
    Done!
    It’s that easy. No expense hiring
    translators and you get the benefit
    of a testimonial thrown in.
    It may or may not be feasible for you to
    conduct your sales in other languages,
    but you can sure provide testimonials
    in native tongues to catch the attention
    of overseas buyers and win a little of
    their trust.
    Then you can continue the sale in
    Engish. Fortunately for us English
    speakers, English is the language
    of business worldwide and many people
    speak it as a second language.

  4. Ryan Orrock July 3, 2007 at 4:36 am #

    Usually, companies hire “localization” vendors to translate their content into multiple languages.
    Hiring full-time translators is usually not a good idea because the work involved with localization comes in short bursts.
    And, localization also involves changing date and address formats and cultural consulting of software–not just pure translation.
    All in all, a fascinating business. I’m glad I’m in it. 😉