Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Swedish Video Site Trouncing YouTube 79

Posted by CowboyNeal from the for-various-definitions-of-trounce dept.
paulraps writes "Why should a video that's funny in Shanghai be funny in Stockholm? That's the explanation for why Bubblare.se, a Swedish competitor to YouTube, is getting around 30 times as many viewers for its Scandinavian video clips as the American market leader. 'Local beats global,' in this market, says managing director Oskar Kalmaru." Luckily for YouTube, the local YouTube-like site around here is YouTube itself.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Swedish Video Site Trouncing YouTube More

Swedish Video Site Trouncing YouTube

Comments Filter:

  • YouTube already localizes. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MindStalker ( 22827 ) <mindstalker@@@gmail...com> on Saturday September 30, 2006 @10:35AM (#16258043) Journal
    Whats funny is YouTube already localizes. If you check google trends you will see that youtube gets most of its hits from asia, and not the US. And if you start to look you will see plenty of non english content on YouTube. I would even bet that YouTube may set its default top videos based upon your location. There is nothing on YouTube to stop you from seeing videos on other sites, but the fact that it can store so MANY videos means that as long as its recommendations and searches are localized, there is no need to localize that actual content.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by lixee ( 863589 )
      If you check google trends you will see that youtube gets most of its hits from asia, and not the US.
      That wouldn't have anything to do that half the planet happens to be in Asia, now would it?
      • Just pointing out that YouTube is not nessesarily as english centric as it seems to be. It would be nice to hear from someone on the other side of the planet, but does YouTube automatically localize based on your location???
        • Yes it does- I live in China. The website itself is still in English, but I see a lot more videos in Chinese featured on the front page at home (direct connection to the internet) than when I browse it at school (which gets its internet through a proxy in the US for a semi-obvious reason) when I'm not in class.

  • In other news... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by setirw ( 854029 )
    ...the local school board is more fully aware of issues plaguing local schools than the US Department of Education.

  • Errr.... RTFA? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @10:41AM (#16258077)
    In TFA, Kalmaru says the opposite of what the article said, "What's funny in Shanghai isn't necessarily funny in Borås." Maybe it was a typo, maybe not.

    Still, I think Kalmaru's generalization is a hasty one to make. Here's one tried-and-true example [youtube.com] to the contrary, where it's just as funny even if you don't sprechen any Deutsch.

    • No, the summary is simply leaving out an intermediate conclusion. It should say:

      Why should what's funny in Shanghai be funny in Stockholm?

      It isn't [necessarily].

      That's why a local alernative is more funny than the global Youtube.

      It took me a minute to understand it, too. Probably lost in translation.

      - RG>
    • OK, all you Chinese people - is that funny or what?

  • The amount of utter crap on Youtube (Score:4, Funny)

    by malsdavis ( 542216 ) * on Saturday September 30, 2006 @10:43AM (#16258081)
    Given the amount of crap on Youtube I think he has a point!

    From my many, many hours spent wasting time on youtube I would honestly declare that at least half the clips on Youtube must be of chubby American wanna-be-famous kids looking like idiots while they dance around infront of their webcam to pop songs.

  • Roliga getter (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by sammyo ( 166904 )
    Really! Don't miss it.

    It starts out seeming to be a discussion of goat husbandry, how to feed
    them, all that good stuff. But there's a kicker. And totally safe for
    work and kids of all ages. And best: no subtle sarcasm or fake bedroom singing.
    Much better than youtube.

  • I have always thought that success of YouTube and MySpace is directly linked to the users of US and it is a ticking clock.

    At some point the market will be saturated here and as far as I know people in Europe either despise or don't care about Myspace. Now Youtube is certainly a different story and I do use them fairly often but they need to change their model.

    Unfortunately I don't think that localizing their own service will really help because services like YouTube especially for audiences in Europe is ba

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jacksonj04 ( 800021 )
      People in the UK at least seem to love MySpace.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by redhog ( 15207 )
        Here in Sweden, there are just so many more "communities" that there seems to be abroad, so there is not need for MySpace. I have to detail what I mean by community here, as that word has a slightly more specific meaning in Sweden than in native-english countries: A commonity is a website that works like something inbetween a dating site and a traditional BBS, and they are almost allways advertisement-only-supported. The most popular example is lunarstorm.se where about 80% of everyone between 15 and 20yrs
      • ...and Poland, don't forget Poland.
      • Doubly so if they are under 20.
  • This is great! I was getting tired of the limited selection of Swedish cooking shows [youtube.com] on Youtube.

    - RG>
  • This localization nonsense may make sense to swedes, but it won't cut it with any English speaking audience.

    Of COURSE we find different cultures interesting and funny. It's the world-wide-web, remember? A lot of Americans watch the crazy Asian clips and a whole load of latinos watch the scantily clad white girls, even if they don't speak the same language. Why this segregative midset? It's refreshing to see what people everywhere are doing. You can watch a German playing a guitar, a hick from Wisonsin talki

  • New Jersey Diner Trouncing Denny's (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MightyYar ( 622222 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @11:24AM (#16258289)
    "Why should a Grand Slam breakfast special made for the national market be popular in New Jersey? That's the explanation for why the Deptford Diner, a New Jersey local competitor to Denny's, is getting around 30 times more customers for its breakfast special as the American market leader. 'Local beats national,' in this market, says waitress Maude Stevens."
    • you gotta understand, Denny's DON'T DO SCRAPPLE!

      I'm from the west coast, and until 18 never had a cheesteak or scrapple, but I've asked for scrapple in Denny's- and decided to go somewhere else next time for just that lack..

      (p.s. scrapple is disgusting)
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple [wikipedia.org]

      • I lived in Philly for 12 years, so I'm familiar with scrapple :) I'm not a big fan of it, but there was a place downtown that made a scrapple sandwich with bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese. It took 5 years off of my life, but that was one fine sandwich. Hey, what else are you going to do with the pig's head?

        A real Philly cheesesteak is also something to behold... don't be put off by the Cheez-Wiz. Jim's on South Street is the way to go, but Tony Luke's on Oregon Ave. is also a stalwart, plus they have a sta

  • The greatest feature of the internet is it international content. When i want some local news/videos/music, there it is. If I want to find some international stuff, see, whats up in other countries, I find it also there. So should we divide to different places? Do you like checking 20 different sites for 20 different countries? I don't and i like to see movies on youtube, that are international. Related stuff from other countries. Contents from other countries can be interesting too.
  • Couldn't they have picked a better name? Everytime I hear/see YouTube I think of tubgirl :(

  • Nice misleading headline (Score:4, Funny)

    by Have Blue ( 616 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @11:29AM (#16258317) Homepage
    In other news, DVDs are kicking the crap out of YouTube*.



    *inside my house
    • The article is phrased ambiguously: "Bubblare.se has up to 30 times more viewers for Scandinavian film clips". The implication is that Bubblare, showing only Scandinavian film clips, has 30 times as many viewers as YouTube does for everything. But that's not it: it's just saying that for Scandinavian viewers, local beats global. In fact, it could well be that Scandinavians spend more time watching YouTube non-Scandinavian clips than Scandinavian clips from Bubblare.

      It just means that a targeted site sells
  • Since when is Slashdot American/British? All these years I've been a dirty foreigner who's just visiting.
  • Bashing YouTube stories lately?

  • I've never heard of this site (Score:5, Informative)

    by gkhan1 ( 886823 ) <oskarsigvardsson@@@gmail...com> on Saturday September 30, 2006 @11:44AM (#16258433)
    I'm Swedish (I'm even called Oskar!) and I've never even heard of this site. YouTube however, I've visited many, many times. Many of my friends use it, and I've never heard any of them ever mention Bubblare.se. Don't put too much stock in this article, is what I'm saying.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by grazzy ( 56382 )
      It's very true. I'm also swedish and actually I too run a website in sweden producing clips. The examples in this article are figures that are easily beaten. The thing is, anyone can count xx,xxx impressions on a videoclip today. The hard thing is doing it in total. What would be interesting is if Bubblare.se had more swedish traffic that youtube in TOTAL which they definatly not have.

      They might have more traffic for a specific clip, but then again, bubblare.se might have tops 10,000 clips whereas youtube p

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
        I've not been to Sweden, so I don't know if this is actually the case, but...

        Both you and the grandparent poster write English well enough that I would not have realised you were not native English-speakers if you hadn't told me. I wonder if this has something to do with your preferring a larger international site to a smaller local one?

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by gkhan1 ( 886823 )

          Why thank you, that was very kind :)

          The truth is that all Swedes know how to read English backwards and forwards. In the swedish school-system there are three subjects that are the most basic ones, the ones that everyone has to pass in, math, Swedish and English. We start to learn English at age 9 and then never stop until we finish high school. Along with the fact that the vast majority of movies and tv-shows are undubbed American programs, this makes us very proficient. This is especially true for peopl

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by claes ( 25551 )
            This is especially true for people below the age of thirty,

            Age of 30? I guess you are still in your teens and can't distinguish adult ages so well :-) You could easily make that figure 40, probably quite a bit higher because I am far below the age when people did start learning english early in school (and I am a few years over 30). I would say there is no difference in English proficiency between 20 and 30 in Sweden today, it might as well be that 30-year-olds are in general are better.
          • Since you are from the country, can you tell me if the (female) Swedish Bikini Team actually exists? If possible, please also include phone numbers. TIA

            Seriously though, you write better English than I can verbally fumble through in French, and I'm an ex-Montrealer!

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gkhan1 ( 886823 )
              First off all, why thank you! Second, and most importantly, I'm fairly certain the Swedish Bikini Team isn't even Swedish. Just American models, pretending (see wikipedia article [wikipedia.org]). We have plenty of hot girls though, but I ain't giving you their number! We don't want any of you creepy canadian dudes hanging around here!

  • Translation (Score:4, Funny)

    by digitalhermit ( 113459 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @11:46AM (#16258445) Homepage
    My Swedish is not very good, but here are some translations of some of the phrases to help you navigate:
    Hem - Home
    Logga In - Log in
    Mest Sedda - Most viewed
    Populära filmklipp - Popular film clips
    Zappa Fram Klipp - Film Clips from (Frank) Zappa - he's big in Sweden
    Pepsi Girl - Pepsi Girl
    Titta Pa Filmklipp - Filmclip of Papa's tits
    Ladda Up - Lather Up

  • Shanghai already has a local version - Toodou [tudou.com]. I think I am in love with the girl from the video.

    As long as the servers are fast and the local lingo is supported, I don't really see why a international company's offering would be any worse than a local's.

  • is funny in any language. Whether he's an american or an asian.

  • It's hard to imagine (Score:5, Funny)

    by DoorFrame ( 22108 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @12:06PM (#16258565) Homepage
    Jeez, why aren't Swedish videos like this one [bubblare.se] more popular worldwide? I don't know, I just can't figure it out.
  • Ever seen Takeshis castle?

    It's a japanese game show-- I first saw in Slovakia, that was briefly aired in the US as MXC or something, but horribly edited and sliced up-

    that I now watch on google video, where whole length epsiodes are available and most of them are from a network in spain...

    http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=takeshis+cas tle&hl=en [google.com]

    no- there is no international humor there...

  • Bubble Arse? Is it really called Bubble Arse?

    Just interesting.
  • So, like, that's what this site should be worth, right?

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/22/122123 3 [slashdot.org]

    Damn those opportunistic Swedes....

  • Predicatably... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gorimek ( 61128 ) on Saturday September 30, 2006 @01:51PM (#16259287) Homepage
    The site is Slashdotted by American nerds hoping to see naked Swedes.

    Say what you will about youtube, they do have rock solid servers.
  • ....Swedish Humor [bubblare.se] doesn't translate well into English. WTF was that?
    • This on is kind of funny if you know what she is singing about. The jokes is that she is singing about this guy that every girl wants; but he's got a dark secret. It starts with "....he's got his hair combed back" spliced in picture Hitler ... "he takes every chance he gets" .... europe gets overrun by the nazis ... does look a bit suspect with a language barrier in place tho ;)
    • That was SO funny! Especially the final shot with the artist doing something close to a Nazi greeting, and then the quick cut to all the Nazi girls hailing. Hahaha!
      Again for clarification, the song is not about Hitler but about some slimy pickup artist, but every inserted clip of Hitler illustrates a line in the lyrics that could be interpreted that way. Way too funny.
  • Who would want to compete for a business that has huge expenses and no income?
  • There is a French competitor of youtube as well, called DailyMotion [dailymotion.com] (available in several languages)

Slashdot Top Deals

"Protozoa are small, and bacteria are small, but viruses are smaller than the both put together."

Close