Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
YouTube Space Paris: a new home for French creators
Friday, October 2, 2015
In France, just like in other cultural centres in Europe, the YouTube creative community is booming. French creators like
Poisson Fecond
(a psychology student who delights and educates 700,000 fans every week) and
Cyprien
(a comedian whose videos have been viewed nearly a 1 billion times) are building global audiences on YouTube. And well-established cultural organisations like the
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
are using YouTube to share French history and culture with viewers around the world.
With all the creativity coming out of the French capital, it was obvious that we should open a YouTube Space -- a collaborative space with state-of-the-art equipment that can be used for free by anyone with a growing YouTube channel -- to help the local YouTube community find even more success.
The Paris YouTube Space is our third in Europe - the others are in London and Berlin. Since 2012, more than 25,000 creators, from emerging comedians to established TV stations, have visited London and Berlin Spaces to produce over 1,500 high quality, highly original videos. Collectively, they’ve garnered over 225 million views and 16 million hours of watchtime from their fans.
We’re happy to invest in our European YouTube Spaces because European creators are… well… talented and prolific! A quarter of videos watched on YouTube worldwide are created by Europeans, helping propel European culture onto the global stage.
At the same time, YouTube has become a vehicle for Europeans to build businesses—more than 3 million creators and partners in Europe make money on YouTube from advertising and we’re looking at new ways to send even more revenue to our creators.
Back at the YouTube Space Paris, as we officially open the doors for the first time, the first month of workshops are already fully booked, and the excitment is palpable. It’s impossible to predict what the French
communauté de créateurs
are going to create here, but I can’t wait to see. And nor can the billion people out there on YouTube, waiting to press play.
Posted by Sebastien Missoffe, Vice President of Content and Operations at YouTube
What makes us Human?
Monday, September 14, 2015
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Over the past three years, filmmaker and artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand travelled to 60 countries, interviewing more than 2,000 people in dozens of languages, in an attempt to answer the question: What is it that makes us human? The result is
HUMAN
, a documentary film that weaves together a rich collection of stories from freedom fighters in Ukraine, farmers in Mali, death row inmates in the United States, and more—on topics that unite us all: love, justice, family, and the future of our planet.
Now we’re partnering with Arthus-Bertrand, the Goodplanet Foundation and Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, to bring HUMAN to you on Google Play, YouTube and the Google Cultural Institute so we can share this project with the widest audience throughout the world.
Watch an extended version of the film on YouTube and Google Play
We’re making HUMAN available on YouTube starting September 12, and later on Google Play. This “director’s cut”of three 90-minute films will be available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. On YouTube, you can also watch extra footage including interviews with figures like United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, animal rights activist Jane Goodall and actress Cameron Diaz, all of whom participated in the film.
Explore HUMAN with the Google Cultural Institute
Over at the
Google Cultural Institute
, you can learn about the origin of the film and listen to anecdotes from the people who brought it to life. You can also meet the characters in and around the movie in their daily lives, with six exhibits of behind the scenes photos and videos that let you explore how HUMAN was made over three years. This includes a collection highlighting how the director shot the aerial views that are a signature of Arthus-Bertrand’s filmmaking.
Exhibitions on Google the Cultural Institute platform
Learn more about this project at
g.co/humanthemovie
or on the
HUMAN Behind The Scenes mobile app
, available on Google Play. With HUMAN, we want to help citizens around the world connect together. So we’d like to hear your answer to the question of what makes us human. Add your voice to the conversation with #WhatMakesUsHUMAN.
Posted by Raphael Goumain, Head of Consumer Marketing, France
Celebrating Europe’s creativity - on YouTube
Thursday, June 4, 2015
It’s hard to believe it’s been just 10 years since the founders of YouTube recorded a grainy video in front of an elephant enclosure — and subsequently changed the world. The video itself was unremarkable, but their idea was powerfully simple: broadcast yourself.
Ten years on, the site is used by everyone from
lifestyle bloggers
to
renowned chefs
and everyone in between. People use it to share events in real time, and to open up a
treasure trove of historic films
to the world. YouTube became a platform for ideas, culture and talent from all across Europe too.
A decade of sharing European creativity is definitely something worth celebrating - and that’s what we did last night, at BOZAR, the Centre for Fine Arts, in Brussels. If you missed Les Twins on stage last night, you can
see them in action here
. Larry and Laurent Bourgeois are identical twins from Sarcelles, France. A single video on YouTube took them from the suburbs of Paris to international stardom, touring with Beyoncé and Cirque du Soleil. They have more than 12 million views on their
YouTube channel
.
Les Twins from France demonstrated their talents at Europe on Stage
From up and coming young musicians to world-leading European cultural institutions such as Madrid’s
Prado Museum
or the
Berlin Philharmonic
, thousands of creators are reaching new audiences online with their videos.
To celebrate its 60th anniversary this year, the Eurovision Song Contest streamed its shows live on YouTube, globally, for the first time. We think that's worth
douze points
:-) -- and so do almost 100 European TV channels who have partnered with YouTube to find new fans all over the planet.
Every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and around a quarter of that time is spent watching videos made by European creators. There are hundreds of YouTube channels across the European Union that make six-figure sums a year from adverts shown next to their content. What's more our partner revenue increased by over 50% per year for each of the last years.
Google’s Matt Brittin said that YouTube is a growth engine for European creativity and culture.
Europe has helped make YouTube what it is today and we can’t wait to see what it has to share with the world in the next 10 years.
Posted by Richard Schuster, YouTube
Google is a growth engine for European business
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Last month I got an email from a proud daughter in the UK whose mother Tricia Cusden used Google tools to launch a makeup business called
Look Fabulous Forever
. She used Search to find suppliers; she built a following using YouTube to show older women makeup tips; and she’s using Google Adwords to find customers online. To date, her YouTube channel has racked up over half-a-million views, and her company now exports products to 24 countries around the world.
Today we are launching an
initiative
spotlighting hundreds of European entrepreneurs like Tricia who have used Google products as a growth engine for their businesses. We’re also announcing that Google will train 1 million Europeans to learn crucial digital skills by the end of 2016. Not long ago, small businesses could only afford to source and sell locally. Global marketing and distribution were out of reach for all but the biggest. Today, any business can reach a global market using the Internet, allowing even the smallest businesses to be a multinational.
If you have a product or service,
Google AdWords
can connect your business with potential customers. Take
Berto Salotti
, a furniture-maker who has shared his story as part of our project. In 2002, after 30 years of production, Berto had six employees based in Meda, Italy, where they sold most of their furniture. Today, after marketing online through Adwords, they’ve quadrupled in both size and revenue and have customers worldwide.
Eumelia
is an ecotourism farm and guesthouse based in rural Greece that uses Google tools to reach out to prospective visitors as far away as Japan and Australia. The company’s founder, Frangiskos, said AdWords is “the best way for a small, local business to have global impact.” And Dutch office supply company
DiscountOffice
said Adwords "levels the playing field", allowing them "to compete with big multinationals from the beginning.”
But it’s not just online marketing through AdWords that helps businesses grow;
YouTube
has helped European creators and entrepreneurs attract fans and customers using the power of video. Marie Lopez is like many 19-year-old Parisians. She loves fashion, design and makeup. But what makes Marie different is that she has more than one million people around the world who subscribe to her YouTube channel,
EnjoyPhoenix
. Having amassed over 120 million views, Marie is now developing her own line of products and working with top brands like L’Oreal. Today, thousands of YouTube channels are making six figures annually and total revenue amongst our YouTubers has grown by 50 percent in each of the last two years.
Google Play
is also a huge growth engine for European developers, connecting them to a booming global app economy. Launched in Spain,
WePlan
is a free Android app that looks at how people use their phones, and recommends the best carriers for their needs. Today it has more than 100,000 users in 24 countries. And WePlan has gone from five to 18 employees in just two years. Last year, Google paid out more than €4.4 billion to developers like WePlan.
We are excited that businesses all around Europe are using the technology we provide as an engine for their growth. To see more of these stories, check out this video:
It’s clear that the opportunities for businesses in the digital age are immense--there are many more ways to reach customers than anyone could have imagined not that long ago. But, for Europe to reach its full potential, we need to clear the way for companies online. We need a single market in the digital world that reflects the single market we enjoy in the physical world already. With over two dozen regulatory and frameworks to contend with, businesses stumble when they seek to sell, grow or hire across borders. The European Commission has rightly identified the digital single market as one of Europe’s top priorities.
Of course, the opportunities afforded by the digital economy are still limited if people don’t have the right skills. At current rates, the EU predicts a shortfall of 900,000 jobs by 2020 due to a lack of digital skills, and there are many businesses that want to get online but don’t know where to start. At Google we’re playing our part. Over the last year we have have helped
tens of thousands of German entrepreneurs
export through partnerships with DHL, PayPal and Commerzbank. We have trained
tens of thousands of young, unemployed people in Spain
with free courses on subjects like web development, digital marketing, and ecommerce. And, we have shown
thousands of traditional Italian craftspeople
how to sell and market their wares online.
But we want to do more. So, today we’ve announced that Google will train 1 million Europeans in crucial digital skills by 2016. We will invest an additional €25M to broaden our current programs and take them to new markets across Europe to train more small businesses on the digital skills they so need. We’ll build a Europe-wide training hub to support businesses anywhere in Europe to get training online.
Some people look at the state of the economy in Europe and are pessimistic. We see something else: a huge diversity of businesses and entrepreneurs with creativity, ambition, and talent -- all using digital tools to create jobs and boost the economy.
Posted by Matt Brittin, President, EMEA Business and Operations, Google
Remembering 70 years since Auschwitz's liberation
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
It was the end of one of the worst chapters in human history - the Soviet Army’s liberation 70 years ago of the notorious Nazi death camp Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. Today, starting at 15:30 CET, the Auschwitz Museum is live streaming on
YouTube
the ceremony marking the liberation, held in front of the Death Gate, together with survivors of the camp:
Throughout the world, various anniversary ceremonies, conferences, exhibitions and meetings are scheduled. The Auschwitz Museum and the United Nations have built a
Map of Remembrance
with the goal to bring together the various memorial activities taking place.
For the past three years, the
Google Cultural Institute
has been working with institutions and associations to preserve and share online thousands of archives, images and videos telling the
stories from the Holocaust
. The Auschwitz Museum participated in this project from the beginning, adding hundreds of
documents
and inviting you to discover individual stories like the love of
Edek Galinski
and
Mala Zimetbaum
or the unique collection of
family photographs
found in the ruins of the camp. Learn more on the “Evacuation and Liberation of the Auschwitz camp" and the “Sonderkommando" through these new online exhibitions.
For this anniversary, the
USC Shoah Foundation
, who shared with the world poignant testimonials of survivors through another exhibition, “70 Stories of Auschwitz”, inviting you to listen to the survivors as they recall their experiences in short and moving personal videos.
We encourage everyone to (re)discover these stories from the Holocaust - and remember, never again.
Posted by Agata Wacławik-Wejman, Head of Public Policy, Central and Eastern Europe
Launching youtube.com/government 101
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
When the
French Foreign Ministry
wanted to engage with citizens, it chose to launch a special YouTube channel. From live streams of
award ceremonies
, to
press conferences
on important issues and
Hangouts
with constituents, YouTube has become an important platform where citizens engage with their governments around the world and elected officials. The Foreign Ministry uploads on average more than one video each day.
In order to help government officials get a better idea of what YouTube can do, we are launching
youtube.com/government101
, a one-stop shop where government officials can learn how to get the most out of YouTube as a communication tool.
The site offers a broad range of YouTube advice, from the basics of creating a channel to in-depth guidance on features like live streaming, annotations, playlists and more. We’ve also featured case studies from government offices around the world that are using YouTube in innovative ways.
If you're a government official, whether you are looking for an answer to a quick question or need a full training on YouTube best practices, we hope this resource will help you engage in a rich dialogue with your constituents and increase transparency within your community.
Posted by Brandon Feldman, YouTube News & Politics
Encouraging Online Video Content in Israel
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Many countries, particularly small ones, face a similar dilemma - how to encourage local production in their own languages. Governments might suggest that the best response is regulation, to artificially require local language video content production. We believe this is neither justified nor effective.
The Internet encourages local content creation. In Israel, the creators of
Tu-Ti-Tu
, an Israeli animation studio specializing in shows for toddlers, tried to make it on TV for years without much success. Today, Tu-Ti-Tu is among the 100 most viewed channels globally on YouTube, and one of the 10 leading channels for family entertainment.
All told, YouTube captures more than a billion views each day. For content creators in a small country like Israel, the internet connects them to a global audience, overcoming physical barriers.
Here, we’ve partnered with the Israeli Film and TV Producers Association and with the Ministry of Economy to run
Made for Web
- a celebration of Israeli content online.
It’s a competition for online video content. Winners are rewarded with cash prizes and a trip to the YouTube Space in London. Last year, there were more than 150 innovative, funny and serious submissions, ranging from travel advice by a three year old child, to an action series for gamers. Winners took a
visit
to the YouTube
space
in London, which they later described as “heaven for video creators.”
This year, we’re going to be running a
workshop
on October 29 in Tel Aviv, where Israeli creators can meet international and local speakers and share best practices.
Matthew Clarke
of Maker Studio and Jake Roper from
Vsauce
will be there. Most important, Made for Web II is now open for submissions.
Apply
by October 31st - and create some more great Hebrew language video.
Posted by Noa Elefant Loffler, Policy and Government Relations Senior Manager, Israel
Tennish champ Federer takes to the court with Glass
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Right in time for the
French Tennis Open
, which opens in Paris on May 25, two of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg, recently took Glass for a swing. It’s safe to say that their combined 23 Grand Slam titles will be the most that ever step foot on Google’s tennis courts at our headquarters in Mountain View.
"It was really fun shooting this video through Glass,” said Roger. “It's not often you get to explore new angles of watching tennis. I hope fans enjoy this new perspective.”
As our Glass Explorer community has grown, we've heard time and time again that Glass is a great companion for sports. Glass has been a hit with several pro athletes from Indiana Pacer
Roy Hibbert
and PGA player
Billy Horschel
. Take a look and swing away.
Posted by Chelsea Maughan, Communications Manager
Combating online hate speech
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
From homophobia and racism to political and religious extremism, “hate speech” on the Internet is raising concern. YouTube and other Google products such as G+ have strong
Community Guidelines
and offer effective tools, featured in the below video, to flag inappropriate content. Yet a recent event with the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee in London’s YouTube Space demonstrated that perhaps the best way to fight hate is through positive counterspeech.
Free speech is vital to democracy. Drowning out ideology with reason represents a powerful weapon. It is only on open platforms like YouTube—not in jihadist chat rooms or the extremist echo chambers of the ‘dark internet’—that susceptible or curious minds will find countervailing points of view.
In 2010, columnist
Dan Savage
and his partner Terry Miller set out to combat discrimination against young gays and lesbians. They started small. Savage filmed a homemade YouTube video called
“It Gets Better.”
It soon swelled into a global phenomenon. In Britain, “It Gets Better… Today,” led to a hit single that climbed the UK independent charts - garnering more than 50 million views.
Our London event aimed to achieve something similar with online extremism. We explored how two British YouTube creators,
Ben Cook
and
Jack Howard
,
partnered
with
Oxfam
on an online campaign to help refugees. Michael Stevens of
Vsauce
proved that YouTube can educate and inform, as well as entertain. And a community worker who helps people that are vulnerable to radicalisation, launched his
YouTube channel,
Abdullah X
, to fight online recruitment of foreign fighters and terrorists.
The internet can be a tool of radicalisation, so it is vital to seize it as a force of good. Though the removal of the really bad stuff, like violence, continues to be essential, too little focus so far has been placed on the importance of counter-messages. As one participant in London said, “We must embrace new technology and make the right messages more digestible so we can flood the internet with positivity.” Building a community around counterspeech is difficult. It may take time. In the end, though, it wins.
Posted by Verity Harding, Public Policy Manager, London
A kingdom of YouTube: Saudi Arabia
Monday, March 24, 2014
Think “Saudi Arabia,” and one thing probably comes to mind - oil. But the desert kingdom is also remarkable for another reason - its love of YouTube. In 2013, the average Saudi Internet user watched three times as many videos per day as the average U.S. user. Saudis aren’t just watching: more and more are producing video content and building businesses.
These successful Saudi YouTube content creators recently gathered for a seminar in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. In the course of a day, they compared their experiences, learned how to create viral Arabic language videos and received tips on how to make money with their online shows.
No cinemas exist in Saudi Arabia, explaining part of the online video phenomena. The Internet allows room to tackle issues often avoided by foreign run TV stations - and permits satire in a way unavailable elsewhere in the Kingdom. A recent hit by
UTURN
spoofed the popular “First Kiss” video, showing various men performing the locally traditional “touching of the nose” embrace in a humorous manner.
“Eysh Elly”
has won more than two million subscribers and more than 200 million views by discussing, and often poking fun at everyday life in the Kingdom. One show, for example, tackled the issue of child care. As the show’s producer says, “we promote harmony, honesty and halal,” discussing issues that “only a Saudi would understand only something a Saudi would talk about.”
Other YouTube Saudi productions tackle issues previously neglected in the local media. UTURN runs a show called Salemha which teaches English by using clips from popular Hollywood movies.
Noon Al Niswa
and
SenTube
focuses health and fitness.
Ana wa Heya
(Him and Her), pits men against women to debate social issues of Saudi culture.
As elsewhere, light entertainment including music and games are popular. Saudi video gaming channels such as
D7oomy999
,
Saudi Gamer
and
Zpad
receive widespread attention not just in the Middle East. Music also can contain a serious message:
TELFAZ11’s
Alaa Wardi’s “No Women No Drive” song, chanted in an acapella version mixing Arabic and Western musical styles, raised awareness about Saudi women fighting for the right to drive.
Arabic content on the web represents just three percent of the total digital content online—yet Arabic speakers make up more than 5 percent of the global population. YouTube in Saudi Arabia is helping close this gap—helping local talents get discovered, express their opinions and start their own businesses. In Saudi Arabia, the Internet is moving the country far beyond oil.
Posted by Haisam Yehia, YouTube team, Middle East, North Africa
Streaming the Nobel Prize Awards
Friday, December 6, 2013
Since 1901, the
Nobel Prize
has marked the ultimate achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature and peace. This year, we’re happy to announce that the The Nobel Foundation is live streaming on
YouTube
many of the key events during Nobel week.
Starting tomorrow at 1 p.m. Stockholm time, this years’s Nobel medicine winners
James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof
will lecture on their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells. At 5:30 p.m. the Nobel Lecture in Literature
Alice Munro
will appear in a pre-recorded video conversation with the Laureate: "Alice Munro: In her own words".
On Sunday morning at 9 a.m.,
physics prize winners François Englert and Peter W. Higgs
will appear. They were honored "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles." After physics, tune into hear the chemistry and economics winners.
Monday will be marked by a conversation with Nobel Laureates on the future of energy.
The ceremonies culminate on December 10 with the
Nobel Peace Prize
Award in Oslo at 1.00 p.m. and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, at 4.30 p.m. from the Stockholm Concert Hall. This year’s prize went to to
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
"for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons".
Make sure to tune in to
http://www.youtube.com/thenobelprize
and join the conversation on
google.com/+NobelPrize
.
Posted by Farshad Shadloo, Communications Manager, Stockholm
Boosting the UK's creative and cultural industries
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
What can a 22 year old on YouTube teach the the
Royal Shakespeare Company
about entertaining audiences? Quite a lot, it turns out, when the YouTubers are stars like
Danisnotonfire
, who has had a 90% growth in traffic in the last year, or
Michael Stevens
, who is fast approaching 500 million views for his channel
VSauce
.
More than 300 British leaders from the arts, creative and cultural sector packed our Central St. Giles office in London to learn from each other - and from some of the new YouTube upstarts - how best to reach and entertain a global audience online. Together with us, the
Arts Council
,
Creative England
,
Culture24
and the
European Creative Industries Alliance
organized the
two day celebration
. On the the first day, we focused on access to finance, and on the second, seizing online opportunities.
Two recurring big themes emerged:
Personality
- Art galleries and museums must engage online in a way that has authenticity, character and even intimacy. One great example was from
Whitechapel Gallery
, where young people at the gallery have set up their own blog,
Duchamp and Sons
, and
twitter feed
to talk about arts and their gallery in their own voice
Collaboration
- The
British Postal Museum
and
Imperial War Museum
explained how our own
Cultural Institute
online exhibitions has helped them not only reach new audiences but enabled collaboration with other institutions.
Every seat was taken for the two-day celebration
All too often, content industries have rushed to blame the Internet for hurting culture. It certainly is bringing change - but as this event shows, it also presents great opportunities for both traditional and new players.
Posted by Theo Bertram, Policy Manager, Google UK
Bienvenue CANAL +!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Ever since it was launched in 1984,
CANAL+
has played a pivotal role in boosting French culture. Much like
HBO
in the United States, the pay-tv broadcaster financed many of France’s most daring films and became home for many of France’s most innovative television shows, including the sharp-hitting and hilarious
Guignols
that spoofed and titilated the French political world. That’s why we take special pleasure today in announcing a new partnership between CANAL+ Group and YouTube.
Les Guignols
Under the new partnership, CANAL + will launch about 20 different channels on YouTube, bringing some of France’s most iconic TV shows all across the world, including
Le Grand Journa
l or
le Petit Journal
. In addition to featuring CANAL+ content, the new YouTube channels will also show highlights from CANAL+ Group’’s other broadcast outlets, including D8, D17 and i>Télé.
The partnership will also support new talent through a new label, Canal Factory. CANAL+ will use its online distribution with YouTube to feature new shows created only for the web. It will experiment with different formats and short original productions. In the past, CANAL+ Group has discovered online new artists such as les Kairas and tested new formats such as the wacky web series at Cannes 2013.
Over the past decade, YouTube has not only become the largest online video service in the world, but it has reshaped the way information is produced, distributed, and accessed. More than one billion people are finding and subscribing to the channels they love on YouTube every month. That’s almost half the people on the Internet.
YouTube channels are attracting a global generation of viewers that has grown up watching what they want, whenever they want, on whatever device is closest. With this new partnership, we’re very excited to help CANAL+ boost viewership and engagement for some of France’s most iconic audiovisual creations and shows and are delighted to bring all this great content to our YouTube community across the world.
This partnership represents exciting news for all lovers of French culture.
Posted by Helene Barrot, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, YouTube, Paris
Live streaming at Egypt's Abu Simbel Temple
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
It was a ritual for the Pharaohs! Twice a year, the sun aligns with the face of
Pharaoh Ramses II’s
statue in the inner sanctuary of the temple of
Abu Simbel
. Today, the
Egyptian Ministry of Tourism
live streamed the occasion on YouTube.
The solar alignment occurs on the date of Ramses II's birthday, February 22, and the date of his coronation, October 22. The latter date also signified the start of the harvest season for Ancient Egyptians.
Ramses commissioned the Abu Simbel temple between 1279 and 1213 B.C out of piety to the gods, to mark his own deification and to celebrate his domination of Nubia. It is carved into sheer stone, located 275 kilometers southeast of the city of Aswan. The original temple was positioned on the bank of the Nile. A UNESCO-sponsored project relocated and raised it some 60 meters in the 1960s to save it from flooding caused by the construction of the giant
Aswan Dam
.
Thousands of tourists flock to the temple to see the solar alignment spectacle. Now, thanks to the Internet, anyone can watch it from anywhere in the world at any time using a desktop or mobile device.
Posted by Tarek Abdalla, Head of Marketing, Middle East & North Africa
Supporting Spanish cinema - and combating piracy
Monday, July 22, 2013
Spanish cinema is famous around the world thanks to the likes of directors such as
Pedro Almodovar
,
Luis Buñuel
and others. Now, thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with Spanish collecting society
Egeda
, these filmmakers could collect royalties from their works on YouTube.
The agreement represents a significant endorsement of our
Content ID
system, which helps combat piracy by allowing video producers to identify their copied content - and make money from it. Whenever copyrighted content is uploaded, the rights owner is asked whether the material should be blocked, allowed to stay up - or whether advertising should be inserted, with the copyright owners receiving revenue as a result.
Once signed up to Content ID, the vast majority of advertising owners choose to insert advertising and generate income from their works. Over recent months, Egeda conducted a pilot study that generated promising results. Advertising was inserted in 65% of a set of videos, increasing revenue from the videos by 87% compared to before the test. “This agreement with YouTube is an example of how the film industry and the technology sector should cooperate: protecting the works of creators and opening the door to new business models,” says
Enrique Cerezo
, Egeda’s president.
In addition to our Content ID cooperation, Egeda also has launched a new YouTube channel featuring trailers, sequences, scenes, selection of actors and other information about Spanish cinema. Take a look below - and enjoy new insights into much of the best of Spanish language filmmaking.
Posted by Maria Ferreras, Director of Strategic Alliances for YouTube, Madrid
Transparency Report: government removal requests rise
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Three years ago when we
launched
the
Transparency Report
, we said we hoped it would shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe. Today, for the seventh time, we’re releasing new numbers showing
requests from governments to remove content
from our services. From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that we received during the first half of 2012.
As we’ve gathered and released more data over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the scope of government attempts to censor content on Google services has grown. In more places than ever, we’ve been asked by governments to remove political content that people post on our services. In this particular time period, we received court orders in several countries to remove blog posts criticizing government officials or their associates.
You can read more about these requests by looking at the
annotations
section of the Transparency Report. Of particular note were three occurrences that took place in the second half of 2012:
There was a sharp increase in requests from
Brazil
, where we received 697 requests to remove content from our platforms (of which 640 were court orders—meaning we received an average of 3.5 court orders per day during this time period), up from 191 during the first half of the year. The big reason for the spike was the
municipal elections
, which took place last fall. Nearly half of the total requests—316 to be exact—called for the removal of 756 pieces of content related to alleged violations of the
Brazilian Electoral Code
, which forbids defamation and commentary that offends candidates. We’re appealing many of these cases, on the basis that the content is protected by freedom of expression under the Brazilian Constitution.
Another place where we saw an increase was from
Russia
, where a
new law took effect
last fall. In the first half of 2012, we received six requests, the most we had ever received in any given six-month period from Russia. But in the second half of the year, we received 114 requests to remove content—107 of them citing this new law.
During this period, we received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos containing clips of the movie “Innocence of Muslims.” While the videos were within our
Community Guidelines
, we restricted videos from view in several countries in accordance with local law after receiving formal legal complaints. We also temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya due to the particularly difficult circumstances there.
We’ve also made a couple of improvements to the Transparency Report since our last update:
We’re now breaking down government requests about YouTube videos to clarify whether we removed videos in response to government requests for violating Community Guidelines, or whether we restricted videos from view due to local laws. You can see the details by scrolling to the bottom of each country-specific page.
We’ve also refreshed the look of the
Traffic
section, making it easier to see where and when disruptions have occurred to Google services. You can see a map where our services are currently disrupted; you can see a map of all known disruptions since 2009; and you can more easily navigate between time periods and regions.
The information we share on the Transparency Report is just a sliver of what happens on the Internet. But as we disclose more data and continue to expand it over time, we hope it helps draw attention to the laws around the world that govern the free flow of information online.
Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director
Promoting tolerance on YouTube in Germany
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Internet often is criticized for allowing violent, intolerant views to be heard, but it also can be used to teach tolerance. In just one example, we recently launched a campaign in Germany called
361° Respekt
, an online video competition in Germany that asks students 13 years old or over to create and upload YouTube videos that show what tolerance means to them.
YouTube long has promoted safety and respect on its site. Our
Safety Center
features tips, tools and advice for users, parents and educators. Viewers are encouraged to report inappropriate content by
flagging videos
that they believe are not in line with our
Community Guidelines
or that should be
age-restricted
. In addition to flagging, channels and/or comments can be reported using our
Help and Safety Tool
and last year we launched the
YouTube Digital Citizenship Curriculu
m designed for educators and students.
Many new partners have joined us in promoting this message through 361° Respekt. They range from international organizations such as
Unesco
, to youth groups such as
Jugendschutz.net
and the health insurer
Techniker Krankenkasse.
Dr. Kristina Schröder
, the Federal Minister for Youth and Family Affairs, is serving as patron for the project and posted a video on her YouTube Channel in support.
A jury will now be assembled and choose a winner at the beginning of April. The project will continue with the creation of a 361° news platform. It will publicise and report on initiatives in Germany designed to foster tolerance and respect.
Posted by Mounira Latrache, Communications and Public Affairs, Hamburg
The sky is rising for Europe’s content industries
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Internet is sometimes accused of damaging the traditional entertainment industry. But a new study shows that the opposite is true: the Internet is driving creativity and revenue opportunities in a way never before seen. The report, sponsored by
CCIA,
a trade association that counts Google as a member, and produced by market research firm
Floor64
. It concludes that both production and revenues are increasing in six key European markets for the book, video game, film, and music industries.
A
previous version
published in 2012 concluded that rising consumer spending likely boosted the entertainment industry in the United States by 50 percent in the decade since 2000.
The
present report
looks at France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It shows how the Internet offers creators and artists opportunities to thrive. Technology and online platforms are helping creators make more money every year, both online and offline. The eBook market, for example, saw double-digit growth in all jurisdictions studied between 2010 to 2011.
The Internet brings big benefits to content makers. It lowers their cost of production and distribution, while opening up a new online market. In Germany, for example,
Sami Slimani
started a lifestyle and fashion channel on YouTube and now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and over 70 millions views. In the UK, The
Slow Mo Guys
began experimenting with high-speed cameras in 2004 and now have well over a million subscribers to their YouTube channel.
Online platforms are expanding fast. On YouTube, video uploads have been increasing exponentially. By the end of 2012, more than 72 hours of video was being uploaded to YouTube every minute, a 30% jump from the beginning of the year. YouTube is also paying out more money to our partners. Thousands of channels are now earning over six-figures a year. The music industry alone is currently making hundreds of millions of dollars annually from having their content on YouTube.
We are in a time of transition from one model of production and distribution of media and culture. While certainly that transition won’t be easy for everyone, the future remains bright for European artists, creators, and the industries that support them.
Posted by Alex Kozak,, Public Policy and Government Relations Analyst
Promoting Arab Culture Online
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The
Qatar Foundation
recently welcomed more than 400 guests to its shining new auditorium in Doha to celebrate their joint love of all things Arabic. They came to hear about the growing number of locally produced Arabic videos on YouTube - particularly the film Super.Full by Lebanese film-maker and
YouTube “Your Film Festival”
finalist Naim Itani
The Doha event was just one highlight of
Google’s Arabic Web Days
, promoting Arabic content online. Today, just three percent of content on the web is in Arabic, even though more than five percent of the world’s web users speak it as their mother tongue. Arabic Web Days showed a deep hunger for more local content. More than half million users showed interest for the campaign, viewing the Arabic Web Days
website
and YouTube
channel
.
Arabic Web Day events took place in countries across the Middle East, involving a wide range of companies and organisations. In Abu Dhabi, we
partnered
with TED and announced a global initiative to enable volunteers to add Arabic subtitles to TED videos. In Jordan, more than 400 developers received training on with Google Translate and a Wikipedia training session encouraged 510 attendees to create articles in Arabic. In Dubai, we ran a training session on online Arabic language tools for journalists at the Dubai Press Club.
Politicians joined in too. In Egypt, the Ministry of Education announced an initiative to create online portals for Arabic educational content. Tunisia's Prime Minister participated in an
online discussion
with bloggers to talk about Arabic content online. The
Telecommunications Regulation Authority
in the United Arab Emirates celebrated an official
“Arabic Web Day”
with workshops on how to help grow the Arabic web.
For a full look, search for
“Arabic Web Days”
on Google+ (in Arabic, of course!).
Posted by Maha Abouelenein, Head of Communications, Middle East and North Africa
Featuring 6 Nations rugby on YouTube
Monday, February 4, 2013
For many European sports lovers, mid-winter means rugby and specifically the
RBS 6 Nations
rugby tournament. This weekend saw the opening matches and we’re delighted to let you know you can now catch up on all the action on YouTube. The RBS 6 Nations and YouTube are partnering for the next three seasons to bring match highlights and exclusive content to viewers worldwide.
Watch
Ireland hold off Wales
in Cardiff despite a second half comeback,
England overcome the spirited Scots
in London, and
Italy surprise the French
in Rome.
The official YouTube channel,
‘RBS6Nations’
, will have highlights from every championship match available to watch within minutes of the end of each match. As an added bonus for viewers in the UK, Ireland and Italy, highlights will be uploaded during the games.
Watch Irish winger, Simon Zebo’s delicious flick against Wales
The channel will offer viewers the chance to watch a wealth of archive moments from past tournaments, which will be uploaded on a regular basis. We hope you enjoy our rugby content on YouTube and stay tuned as YouTube adds more high quality sports content.
Posted by Stephen Nuttall, Senior Director, Sports for YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa
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