This week, YouTube announced it was launching a version of it’s service in Mexico.
The idea behind it is to showcase Mexican talent/content to Mexican users without them having to search for it. And of course, the site is in Spanish.
I’m a little on the fence with this one. On one hand, I find it commendable that YouTube finally realized that there are other users out there who don’t have English as their first language – which allow more people to use their tool.
On the other hand, the whole notion behind social media is sharing content across and without borders/boundaries. Having a separate version of the application seems to defeat this.
Now – in their defence, YouTube officials are saying anything posted on the Mexican version of the site will be available on the traditional YouTube.com and this will help promote Mexican talent in their country.
As they launch other language versions (which I hope and think they should do) I wonder why they simply couldn’t have kept one user interface that allows you to choose your language upon sign in and/or defaults to the language of choice in your country since their owners Google ensure you go to your country extension of their site?
Rebecca Atkinson (Muller) is a freelance web marketing/analytics consultant with more than seven years of direct experience helping businesses create and implement online marketing and communications strategies. Her clients come from all industries including finance, technology and not-for-profit. She specializes in helping her clients determine how to improve their advertising programs, focusing on visitor behaviour – beyond the inital click-through. Full bio available
Do you have a link to the announcement?
Actually – that’s a good point. I originally heard this on the news and when I searched before writing this post, and in more detail since – the only link I can find is this from Reuters posted Oct. 11:
http://tvscripts.edt.reuters.com/2007-10-11/3e005b25.html
I can’t even seem to locate anything on YouTube’s site about it. In fact – the only comment I can find on their site is in the About Us section:
YouTube continues to operate independently, completely within the United States. However, we are committed to “internationalizing” YouTube by translating services and features into each country’s native language.