Supercharging the “Next” phase in YouTube partner development

2010 was a big year for content creators on YouTube. Our Partner Program grew to over 15,000 partners worldwide; presidential parodies and clever online-only ads became viral sensations; “annoying” but lovable fruits and unassuming Alabamans transformed uncomfortable situations into triumphant social memes. What became clearer than ever was the YouTube community’s ability to constantly bring new entertainment and experiences into the mainstream. And, many of our partners were making enough money doing what they love to buy a new house, or even make a career out of their videos. In fact, the number of partners making over $1,000 a month is up 300% since the beginning of 2010 and we now have hundreds of partners making six figures a year. But frankly, “hundreds” making a living on YouTube isn’t enough and in 2011 we know we can and should do more to help our partners grow.

Today, we are happy to announce a significant increase in our commitment to our aspiring and successful creators on YouTube.

• YouTube Next. YouTube Next is a new team tasked with supercharging creator development and accelerating partner growth and success. The team will also spearhead a series of YouTube Next-branded programs and services that will build off past partner development initiatives such as the Partner Grants Program that advanced partners funds based on future YouTube revenue share and the recent $1,000 credits at B&H Photo given to partners to purchase new camera equipment. The YouTube Next team and programs will expand our partner meet-ups and community events, increase investment in partner education and training and launch new capabilities in audience development.

• Next New Networks. We are extremely excited to announce the acquisition of Next New Networks. Since launching in March 2007, the Next New Networks team has built a highly effective platform for developing, packaging and building audiences around original web video programming, attracting over 2 billion views and 6 million subscribers across their partner networks of channels and shows. Within YouTube, Next New Networks will be a laboratory for experimentation and innovation with the team working in a hands on way with a wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube. We are thrilled with the new capability the team brings and the positive impact it will have making our YouTube partners more successful.

At YouTube, we’re focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners. This new group and the addition of the Next New Networks team doesn’t change that. But being a great platform for creators also means helping our partners get the tools and guidance they need to develop higher quality videos and drive bigger audiences to their work.

2011 promises to be an exciting year for the online video industry. We look forward to announcing more YouTube Next initiatives throughout the year, chronicling the impact on partners and highlighting the results on this blog for everyone to enjoy.

Tom Pickett, Director of Global Content Operations and YouTube Next, recently watched “GoPro HD: Human Flight - World Base Race 2010 with Neil Amonson.”

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This Week's Trends: Oscars, Dansi, and Charlie Sheen

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:

• We followed how auto-tune has spread from the United States across the Middle East and North Africa.
  
  
• We figured out which Oscar nominees saw the biggest post-awards bumps in YouTube interest.
  
  
• On the author's birthday, we studied the sometimes funny, sometimes touching trend of YouTube Dr. Seuss readings.
  
  
• And we looked into just what in the world that "Apaci Dansi" video is actually all about.
  
  
• We saw how satellite images can help add real perspective on dramatic footage from Libya.
  
  
• And as the Charlie Sheen saga was unfolding, we examined how the YouTube community was reacting. Here's a sample:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Wisdom Tooth Surgery - Eye Trauma."

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Your interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner

As Democrats and Republicans duel over the federal budget this week in Washington, we sat down for the first-ever YouTube interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner. It’s clear that Americans are still feeling the weight of the recession -- a large majority of the questions submitted for Speaker Boehner were on the topics of jobs, the economy, and spending in Washington. The Speaker also played a YouTube speed round of, “Keep it or Cut it?” in which he reacted to your suggestions on budget cuts.

Watch the full interview here:



Speaker Boehner also addressed questions on immigration, education, and healthcare. A unique question from a man in New Jersey about whether the Speaker would ever consider a Works Progress Administration similar to the one FDR created during the Depression may surprise you.

You can see more videos from the Speaker’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/johnboehner.

Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched "Boehner Highlights Vote to Cut Spending, Help Create Better Environment for Job Creation"

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The media, and the Internet, in Afghanistan

Editor’s note: Steve was part of a Google/YouTube delegation that went to Afghanistan two weeks ago to examine the state of media and web content in Afghanistan, and to explore opportunities to improve the country’s access to Google products and platforms.

When Pari Akbar started her blog, Millaad, to address women’s issues in Afghanistan, she had no idea it would lose her her job. But as the young Afghan blogger slowly built an audience for topics ranging from the fundamental (voting rights for women) to the academic (the linguistic repression of women through semantic structures in Dari) she began to draw the ire of her co-workers at her government job in Kabul. Though they had no formal authority to do so, many of them told her to stop blogging. When she wouldn’t, the physical threats began. Soon, Akbar didn’t feel safe at work anymore -- but she didn’t want to stop publishing. She left her secure government job and kept on writing.

Akbar was one of about a dozen bloggers we met on a recent tour of Afghanistan, sponsored by the Department of Defense, to examine the content landscape in the region and look for ways to develop and promote more local media in the country. Her story is emblematic of the country’s efforts to develop a media sector since the Taliban left power. A new class of journalists and media entrepreneurs are flooding the market, working to hold the Afghan government accountable and build Afghanistan’s Fourth Estate -- but formal and informal challenges remain.

While the Taliban is no longer hanging TVs from trees in an attempt to intimidate people from consuming media, journalistic freedom remains a challenge in Afghanistan. In 2009, the Karzai government passed a media law that forbids any coverage of events that “jeopardizes national security”, a vaguely-worded edict that allows the government to shut down any media coverage they don’t like; which they did, for example, in the wake of protests following the parliamentary elections last fall. Most journalists we met with in Kabul and Herat expressed frustration over the challenges they face in covering the Afghan government; there is simply not a culture of a free press in Afghanistan yet.

There is, however, a tremendous thirst for information. 90% of people listen to the radio every day, and even though only 30% of Afghans have electricity, 60% say they watch television daily (using generators or community viewing locations). The clear media leader on broadcast is ToloTV, a network run by an entrepreneurial Afghan named Saad Mohensi who has strong ties to American media and has built an impressive news network with 60% market share in just 5 years. “We see part of our job as facilitating social change,” says Mohensi. One of his most popular programs is “Afghan Star”, a local version of “American Idol” and has produced great local talent and grown a sizable audience.



The U.S. government has moved to support Afghan media enterprises with funding for programming from the State Department and USAID. In some cases, that means directly funding programs that promote values critical to building a strong Afghan society, such as the ToloTV drama, “Eagle Four”, a knock-off of the “24” that features corruption-fighting cops. In other cases, it means funding media efforts intended to build local news organizations from the ground up. Internews, a global nonprofit focused on media growth, has a 22 million dollar grant from USAID to develop a series of multimedia centers across Afghanistan in 2011, teaching Afghan journalists about the web and how to use it. Internews biggest success has been their radio network, Salam Watandar (“Hello, Countrymen”), which broadcasts from 43 local stations across the country. One of its most popular shows, “Seek and Search”, is essentially a Google call-in show: viewers call in with questions, which the hosts (who have broadband access) type into Google and then deliver the answer over the air.

Salam Watandar, or “Hello, Countrymen!”, a program of the U.S. nonprofit Internews

The greenfield for media development is the web. However, broadband access is both paltry and exorbitantly expensive: estimates put penetration at about 1%, and the cost is $2,000 per megabit, making the web prohibitively expensive for most Afghan families. A new fiber optic backbone is currently under construction that should alleviate that somewhat, so long as the telcos pass along the savings to consumers. Foreign investors are taking notice of the opportunities in the Afghan IT sector, pouring $1.6 billion into the marketplace, more than any other industry in the country.

After decades of war, Afghanistan is a splintered nation and Afghans have come to expect inconsistency. The Internet, and a strong media, has a unique opportunity to bring Afghans together around a shared identity and an understanding of the opportunities they have to engage the world and the global economy.

Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched "Afghan Star Finals - Shekib Hamdard."

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