22 June 2007 | Author: C. Philip

Google to launch YouTube in South Korea

Google has only just spread the services of YouTube to nine international countries, but the online video sharing site is set to swim the seas once more - this time to South Korea.

The launch is expected later this year, in order to capitalise on the fast growing user created content market in South Korea. The South Korean YouTube will come with an interface translated into Korean and will have a platform for sharing and uploading media globally.

South Korea is said to be one of the most "wired" societies in the world and has established itself as a global broadband leader. The country has a unique position from a wireless broadband/3G point of view and is pushing hard to develop fourth generation wireless technologies.

For years, Korean television viewers have been able to watch their favourite shows online. These shows are not provided by third party sources like the Apple iTunes Store or Google Video, but by the TV companies themselves. Korean TV companies provide complete archives of their shows that are downloaded or streamed online for no, or very low, cost.

With all this in mind, it could be suggested that Google intends to learn a lot from such a broadband centred and technologically rich culture - especially when it comes to online video. Google actually launched a Korean-language search site back in 2000 and has been striving to boost its presence in the Korean market since. Competition from local firms has kept Google away from market dominance in Korea, but could the YouTube move sway things later in the year?

Google have also recently announced that they plan to open a Research and Development base in South Korea. This would involve a cost investment of around $10 million and the hiring of around 130-150 researchers. Alan Eustace, Google senior VIP for engineering said that it was Google's intention to recruit local computer scientists within this new Google Korea centre.

These developments offer an even stronger reason to believe that the Californian based internet giants indeed wish to further their global grip on search technology using Korean innovation and expertise as a technological source. Moreover, Korean internet user habits point the way towards what we can expect from the developing habits of American web users when broadband becomes as ubiquitous in the US as it is in Korea.

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