[The Chosun Ilbo, January 24 2008] YouTube Launches Korean Site

YouTube has launched a Korean version of its popular video sharing website. The company said at a press conference at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday that it began its Korean service that day, at www.youtube.co.kr.

Established in February 2005, YouTube is the world's largest video sharing website, with tens of thousands of new video clips being posted every day.

Google acquired YouTube in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion. Korea is the 19th country with a localized version, following countries like Britain, France and Australia.

Sakina Arsiwala, international manager for YouTube, said that Korea is a very attractive market with a robust IT infrastructure. "Rather than just translate our site into Korean, we worked to localize the service so that users can see the most popular video clips in Korea as well," she said.

YouTube Korea provides online community services as well as its video-viewing service which lets users watch video clips posted by users and professional content creators around the world.

Google Korea president Lee Won-jin said, "I hope that videos created by Korean netizens will spread around the world through YouTube, causing another Korean Wave or craze for Korean pop culture."