YouTube Eyes Asian Growth

YouTube’s usage and revenues are growing rapidly in Asia, Robert Kyncl, the video sharing site’s chief business officer, told delegates at APOS today.

The region also has a “vibrant creative community,” that the platform is eager to continue tapping into.

About 450 hours are uploaded a minute to the site across the globe, Kyncl noted, with a billion hours streamed a day. He quipped that the site is “the world’s free-to-air station.”

On YouTube TV, Kyncl said that augmenting advertising revenues with subscriptions means it can “drive more revenue to the creative community. We put TV on the phone. We’re bringing searchability and shareability to TV content.” A full launch in the U.S. will need to be complete before YouTube begins contemplating taking the service out globally.

On Asia, Kyncl noted that “the pivot to mobile has been one of the most exciting things for us. In 2012, mobile was 4 percent of our consumption. We didn’t even have the rights in our agreements to exploit content on mobile. We’ve gone through amending 20 million agreements and then started to push on mobile availability. Today, globally, mobile consumption represents 65 percent of our watch time. In Asia, it’s 85 percent. It’s definitely a mobile-first market for us.” Kyncl said that YouTube has worked with telcos in the region on making video data plans more affordable to users.

Kyncl said that YouTube’s success globally has been driven by its “zealous focus on the user,” adding that 65 percent of its watch time is driven by recommendations.

Discussing YouTube Kids, Kyncl said that the platform is bearing 10 million daily users globally.