Swedish Video Site Trouncing YouTube

paulraps writes "Why should a video that's funny in Shanghai be funny in Stockholm? That's the explanation for why Bubblare.se, a Swedish competitor to YouTube, is getting around 30 times as many viewers for its Scandinavian video clips as the American market leader. 'Local beats global,' in this market, says managing director Oskar Kalmaru." Luckily for YouTube, the local YouTube-like site around here is YouTube itself.

Comments

YouTube already localizes.

[MindStalker]

Whats funny is YouTube already localizes. If you check google trends you will see that youtube gets most of its hits from asia, and not the US. And if you start to look you will see plenty of non english content on YouTube. I would even bet that YouTube may set its default top videos based upon your location. There is nothing on YouTube to stop you from seeing videos on other sites, but the fact that it can store so MANY videos means that as long as its recommendations and searches are localized, there is no need to localize that actual content.

Re:YouTube already localizes.

[lixee]

If you check google trends you will see that youtube gets most of its hits from asia, and not the US.

That wouldn't have anything to do that half the planet happens to be in Asia, now would it?

Errr.... RTFA?

[Dachannien]

In TFA, Kalmaru says the opposite of what the article said, "What's funny in Shanghai isn't necessarily funny in Borås." Maybe it was a typo, maybe not.

Still, I think Kalmaru's generalization is a hasty one to make. Here's one tried-and-true example to the contrary, where it's just as funny even if you don't sprechen any Deutsch.

The amount of utter crap on Youtube

[malsdavis]

Given the amount of crap on Youtube I think he has a point!

From my many, many hours spent wasting time on youtube I would honestly declare that at least half the clips on Youtube must be of chubby American wanna-be-famous kids looking like idiots while they dance around infront of their webcam to pop songs.

Have always said this

[unPlugged-2.0]

I have always thought that success of YouTube and MySpace is directly linked to the users of US and it is a ticking clock.

At some point the market will be saturated here and as far as I know people in Europe either despise or don't care about Myspace. Now Youtube is certainly a different story and I do use them fairly often but they need to change their model.

Unfortunately I don't think that localizing their own service will really help because services like YouTube especially for audiences in Europe is based a large part on viral marketing. Without the word of mouth aspect they wouldn't be as big as they are and they simply don't have the word of mouth going for them abroad.

If they were smart they would buy this company and make it a YouTube network. Built off the YouTube bandwith and infrastructure running YouTube software but localized and started by a local company. Now that would work well to scale the YouTube model.

Re:Have always said this

[jacksonj04]

People in the UK at least seem to love MySpace.

Re:One for Great Britain would be excellent.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish there was some way to filter such anime videos out

i know this is contraversial but have you thought of using your eyes ? they have this thing called thumbnails that give you a screenshot of the video

New Jersey Diner Trouncing Denny's

[MightyYar]

"Why should a Grand Slam breakfast special made for the national market be popular in New Jersey? That's the explanation for why the Deptford Diner, a New Jersey local competitor to Denny's, is getting around 30 times more customers for its breakfast special as the American market leader. 'Local beats national,' in this market, says waitress Maude Stevens."

Nice misleading headline

[Have Blue]

In other news, DVDs are kicking the crap out of YouTube*.



*inside my house

I've never heard of this site

[gkhan1]

I'm Swedish (I'm even called Oskar!) and I've never even heard of this site. YouTube however, I've visited many, many times. Many of my friends use it, and I've never heard any of them ever mention Bubblare.se. Don't put too much stock in this article, is what I'm saying.

Re:I've never heard of this site

[grazzy]

It's very true. I'm also swedish and actually I too run a website in sweden producing clips. The examples in this article are figures that are easily beaten. The thing is, anyone can count xx,xxx impressions on a videoclip today. The hard thing is doing it in total. What would be interesting is if Bubblare.se had more swedish traffic that youtube in TOTAL which they definatly not have.

They might have more traffic for a specific clip, but then again, bubblare.se might have tops 10,000 clips whereas youtube probably has x100

Re:I've never heard of this site

[TheRaven64]

I've not been to Sweden, so I don't know if this is actually the case, but...

Both you and the grandparent poster write English well enough that I would not have realised you were not native English-speakers if you hadn't told me. I wonder if this has something to do with your preferring a larger international site to a smaller local one?

Re:I've never heard of this site

[gkhan1]

Why thank you, that was very kind :)

The truth is that all Swedes know how to read English backwards and forwards. In the swedish school-system there are three subjects that are the most basic ones, the ones that everyone has to pass in, math, Swedish and English. We start to learn English at age 9 and then never stop until we finish high school. Along with the fact that the vast majority of movies and tv-shows are undubbed American programs, this makes us very proficient. This is especially true for people below the age of thirty, almost all of whom can understand English perfectly (if not always being able to speak it very well).

However, I would say that I am above average due to the fact that I went to an English high school in Stockholm where all subjects where taught in English (except Swedish, of course). So yes, it is certainly true that I tend to prefer international English sites over Swedish ones. Still, I have a number of friends that arn't as good as me that are completely addicted to YouTube, and they've never mentioned Bubblare.se. I realise that this isn't the largest statistical sample, but based on this I seriously doubt that the site is as big as they claim. Totally unscientific, I know, but I can say that they haven't achieved that most coveted of honors, that of being a meme. YouTube however, certainly has.

Re:I've never heard of this site

[claes]

This is especially true for people below the age of thirty,

Age of 30? I guess you are still in your teens and can't distinguish adult ages so well :-) You could easily make that figure 40, probably quite a bit higher because I am far below the age when people did start learning english early in school (and I am a few years over 30). I would say there is no difference in English proficiency between 20 and 30 in Sweden today, it might as well be that 30-year-olds are in general are better.

Translation

[digitalhermit]

My Swedish is not very good, but here are some translations of some of the phrases to help you navigate:
Hem - Home
Logga In - Log in
Mest Sedda - Most viewed
Populära filmklipp - Popular film clips
Zappa Fram Klipp - Film Clips from (Frank) Zappa - he's big in Sweden
Pepsi Girl - Pepsi Girl
Titta Pa Filmklipp - Filmclip of Papa's tits
Ladda Up - Lather Up

It's hard to imagine

[DoorFrame]

Jeez, why aren't Swedish videos like this one more popular worldwide? I don't know, I just can't figure it out.

Predicatably...

[Gorimek]

The site is Slashdotted by American nerds hoping to see naked Swedes.

Say what you will about youtube, they do have rock solid servers.