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YouTube Goes International
Bizzeh writes "YouTube has announced that they plan to go international. The video site, owned by Google, has launched nine country-specific versions across Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. The BBC reports: 'YouTube is now stressing its credentials as a platform not just for user-generated content but also for professional broadcaster and advertisers. The company says it has more than 1,000 global partners, with more than 150 deals signed in Europe since March. [Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder] said: "We respect copyright and we want to create new revenue streams to create opportunities. "We have been working with rights holders to help them leverage new audiences."'"
NL: 16.5 million people, 11 million internet eyeballs. Additional countries with the same language: Belgium, Suriname, Nederlandse Antillen.
DE: 82 million people, 50 million internet eyeballs. Additional countries with the same language: Austria, Swiss.
Your reasoning for including the Netherlands and excluding Germany is a very fragile one.
bash$
Nope
Do note that Netherlands has a far higher broadband penetration. From the first result in Google Netherlands has 22.5 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants ranking #2, Germany ranks #18 with 10.2%. Belgium, partly Dutch ranks #8. Full stats.
Also in the Netherlands online video is very popular, the public broadcast puts all self created shows on the internet, other providers also have online offerings. The VPRO already has a Youtube channel, so has the Public broadcasters in general and the institute for Beeld en Geluid.
While population wise the Netherlands is small, with the high broadband we have many active internetusers. Microsoft Live mail for instance was launched in the Netherlands even before any other country because we have a high broadband penetration and a population eager to test new things.
My freeware games
The German newspaper "Ruhrnachrichten" reported today that Google is still in negotiations with the musicrights organisation GEMA (German RIAA eqivalent) about copyrighted music used in videoclips on Youtube without royalties getting paid.
They quote an unnamed Google spokesman saying that a German Youtube site will hopefully follow in a few month.
I really don't see how the GEMA could now demand their cut on behalf of a simple German translation of Youtube. It seems that the other already translated sites are still hosted in the USA and I guess de.youtube.com will be as well.