YouTube Romania Turns 10
Today we don't even think twice about going on YouTube to listen to music, or a podcast, or finding a recipe for a dish
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 08.08.2023, 14:00
Today we don’t even think twice about going on YouTube to listen to music, or a podcast, or finding a recipe for a dish. However, most people don’t know that YouTube Romania is only 10 years old, and we thought we would love to find out about it from the horse’s mouth, namely from Elisabeta Moraru, Country Manager for Google Romania, and with Dan Oros, head of marketing for Google Romania.
In the spring of 2013, Google launched its YouTube version for Romania. It hosted content adapted for users in the country, allowing content creators here to be more easily discovered, and companies to use the platform for promotion. Elisabeta Moraru told us how, starting 10 years ago, the notion of vlogger became different from that of blogger, providing a place to publish online videos.
“These have been 10 extraordinary years, and we looked back to how turbulent these 10 years were, during which YouTube, like Prince Charming, grew three times faster than others in the same period of time. Some moments are almost forgotten, but some are imprinted in our memory, because there have been projects launched during this time that we are very proud of. In April 2013, we were launching officially the Romanian version of YouTube. This brought with it the first Romanian viral clips, and helped us grow exponentially this ecosystem.
As the anthem of vloggers went, ‘We make it for you, you give us a share back’, this was back in 2015. Here is Elisabeta Moraru, continuing the story:
“Things changed in these 10 years. More and more people were hearing about vloggers, and they started to follow them on the platform, and categories emerged with a very large following, such as the area of beauty care. We held an event where I found out many beauty secrets. One of our colleagues back then was also a vlogger, and back then she had around 15,000 subscribers. Today she has 10 times more. That was a beautiful moment at the Google House.
From those promising moments at that time, the enthusiasm grew to a degree that was hard to imagine.
Dan Oros, head of marketing for Google Romania, brought us to the present:
“Now let’s get back to the present, in 2023, and look at some data. Let’s start with the most important figure, which is 12 million. Over 12 million adults visit YouTube every month. I follow YouTube all the time, I find useful information here, I find music, entertainment, education, and we are very happy to see this figure growing with every year. What is interesting is the way in which adults in Romania consume YouTube. Of course, at first it was using desktops. Now the order is different. First we have the smartphone, then the TV set, and then the laptop or desktop. If we talk about the TV, 5.5 million Romanians use them for YouTube.
And, as we are talking about the digital era, things do not stop here. Here is Dan Oros again:
“This number is growing. Also, what is also growing is the time people spend watching TV. We can see people watching YouTube on TV following longer and longer videos, such as podcasts or documentaries. What do people tell us about watching YouTube? In addition to all this quantitative information, we want to provide you with some qualitative information. Last year we ran a study together with IPSOS, to see what people are watching. 91% of Romanians going on the platform told us that they learned something new from there. And I think we all could learn something from YouTube. 85% of Romanians going there believe that watching content and using the platform is helpful when picking out a product they want to purchase. Maybe they found out about a new phone model, an interesting car, maybe they saw a better performing gaming laptop which they would like to get. Such a search could may have helped them make a decision on making the purchase. Eight out of ten Romanians tell us that they find on YouTube unique content, that they cannot find somewhere else. Last but not least, 74% say that advertisements there helped them discover new products and brand names. What we are noticing that brand names are becoming more and more creative, more original in the ads that they place on the platform for users, which makes us very glad.
Dan Oros continued:
“There are over 8,000 Romanian channels which have over 10,000 subscribers. Also, according to data from December 2022, there are over 1,600 channels with over 100,000 subscribers, and, even better, there are over 150 channels in Romania with more than a million subscribers, so that they got the golden button.
The first YouTube content creator to hit one million subscribers was Mihai Alexandru Hash, handle Mikey Hash, who reached this number in 2016. In late 2022, there were over 150 channels in Romania with over a million members, 20% more than in late 2021. The first diamond button, granted to channels that hit the level of over 10 million subscribers, was received in 2020 by LooLoo Kids. This was the first YouTube channel in Central and Eastern Europe to his this landmark.
