Philippines among top markets for YouTube

MANILA, Philippines — Video-sharing website YouTube is exploring more local partnerships as it intends to further expand its ecosystem in the country.

Vishal Sarin, director of YouTube content partnerships in Southeast Asia, said the Philippines is one of the video-sharing site’s most vibrant and fastest-growing markets. 

“The Philippines is an important market for YouTube,” said Sarin, noting that the number of creator channels in the country with more than 100,000 subscribers have grown by 20 times, while the number of media channels with more than one million subscribers increased 10 times from 2016 to 2019.

“Over the years, we have seen an immense growth not only in the number of people watching videos but also in creators starting their own channels and brands going digital to engage their consumers. As we are committed to the Philippines, we plan to further grow the YouTube ecosystem by forging more local partnerships and developing creators outside of Metro Manila,” he said.

With the continuous growth of YouTube in the country where creators continue to bring new and locally-relevant content online, the company said more opportunities arise for media, advertisers, and even users who want to be creators and start their own channel.

Among YouTube’s key partners in the Philippines are Smart Communications, the wireless subsidiary of telco giant PLDT, and leading budget carrier Cebu Pacific.

Last year, Smart launched the Free YouTube Every Day program, providing a free hour of YouTube access daily for its mobile prepaid subscribers.

As a result of the program, Smart’s mobile data usage more than doubled year-on-year and service revenues from mobile data increased by 62 percent.

“At Smart, we strive to empower every Filipino through digital innovations that can uplift their lives. Partnering with YouTube enabled us to grow our business and at the same time connect more Pinoys to relevant and useful videos every day, creating meaningful impact to the lives of our customers,” PLDT and Smart senior vice president and head of consumer market development Oscar Reyes Jr. said.

Cebu Pacific, meanwhile, used YouTube to engage its target market when it launched its month-long anniversary campaign earlier this year.

“YouTube plays an important role in our omnichannel strategy. In the recent Super Seat Fest 3.3 Sale campaign, we reached over 20 million Filipinos and Cebu Pacific became the most searched brand during the campaign period. Most of all, consumers who booked flights during the 3.3 campaign grew thrice compared to our last major seat sale,” Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog said.

Broadcast media giants ABS-CBN and GMA Network are also using YouTube to reach more audiences and to address their audience’s ever-changing needs by placing some of their key entertainment and music content on the video-sharing site.

YouTube, a Google company, was launched in May 2005 to allow billions of people to discover, watch, and share originally-created videos.