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 YouTube South Africa
goes live
By Tallulah Habib
YouTube has launched a .co.za domain and signed agreements with SABC and e.tv to showcase local content.
You may have noticed when perusing YouTube vids either today or yesterday, that the logo had a South African flag and the url ended in .co.za.
What this means is that the site is now available through a South African interface which promotes content most relevant to South African viewers, conveniently arriving just before the Fifa World Cup.
Five-year-old YouTube yesterday recorded that it had reached two billion views, making it by far the world's most popular online video community.
“We’re very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to South Africa and we look forward to continuing to improve the YouTube experience for our South African users,” says Chad Hurley, YouTube Co-Founder.
According to a press release, YouTube has signed partnership agreements with both SABC and e.tv in order to establish a presence on the site to distribute their content and grow their audience.
Television lecturer Alette Schooman, of the Rhodes University school of Journalism and Media Studies, sees YouTube as a medium for telling dynamic stories and reaching a wide audience.
“Our students are covering South African issues that are often under-reported in today’s media landscape,” she says. “Through RhodesTV, the Rhodes Journalism School’s new YouTube channel, we will raise awareness about serious issues that cannot be ignored.”
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