The internet giant Google will launch its online video service YouTube in Romania next week. This will allow Romanian composers receive money for their songs uploaded on Youtube, after the Union of Composers in Romania recently signed a license contract with Google Ireland. The launch of YouTube in Romania is scheduled for Thursday, April 25, and is expected to bring more local content. Users will also be able to access the international version.

Several Romanian artists, such as Inna and Alexandra Stan, have seen their songs becoming hits on YouTube, and raising millions of views. The current YouTube top 100 most viewed videos however does not include any Romanian songs.

YouTube was launched in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, all early employees of PayPal, and in 2006 it was taken over by Google for USD 1.65 billion. It has some one of the most popular platforms for entertainment around the world.

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube. Around 70 percent of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US. The platform has more than a million advertisers using Google ad platforms, the majority of which are small businesses.

editor@romania-insider.com