YouTube says namaste, launches Indian edition

DESI YOUTUBE: The site is being used by companies like Rajshri to market their serials.

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Keywords: YouTube, videos

New Delhi: Popular video-sharing Website YouTube is now in India, offering a lot more than just funny home videos.

“You Tube India says Namaste. This is a special site designed to showcase content specific to India,” says YouTube’s International Manager, Sakina Arshiwala.

Videos by Indians, for Indians and of Indians, the Website has already drawn in big names like Rajshri Productions, who are now using it to market their serials.

“We Have a twelve part mini series that we are putting up on YouTube to drum up interest for our TV venture,” explains MD, Rajshri Media (P) Ltd, Rajat A Barjatya

While IIT Madras has put up advanced engineering classes on YouTube, small-time performers like magician Suhani Shah are using it to achieve instant celebrity.

“I'm immediately able to get a world-wide audience for magic shows. Someone wanting to hire me for a stage show now just has to see a sample of my work on Youtube,” says Shah.

It's the sheer number of Indians like Suhani, Shah that made YouTube create a site for India.

“CommScore says 200,000 new Indian users log on to YouTube every month,” says Sakina.

But can the Web handle such a glut of video traffic? Last year, YouTube ate up as much bandwidth as the whole of the Internet in 2000. Some experts even predict a major Web crash by 2011, thanks to bandwidth shortage. Till then of course, happy watching!