#YouTube launches new translation tools to globalize content

In an effort to expand its global reach, YouTube announced a set of new tools to help translate the titles and descriptions of its vast trove of videos into multiple languages.

YouTube estimates more than 80% of its videos are viewed outside the United States and more than 60% of a YouTube channel’s views come from outside its country of origin.

But countless videos that might have been relevant to viewers went unseen because of a search process that was limited to a single language, said Vladimir Vuskovic, product manager for YouTube Globalization.

With the new tools, YouTube offers the ability for titles and descriptions of the videos on its site to appear in multiple languages, “which helps with discovery of content,” Vuskovic said.

YouTube is offering three new services. Those who make videos can translate their titles and descriptions, as well as the subtitles for videos that contain them, into 76 languages, including Mandarin, French and Spanish.

In addition, vendors who offer translation services to Google Play developers can do the translation. YouTube said that included translation into 57 languages.

Finally, YouTube said it would let viewers do the translating through crowdsourcing, in which YouTube would screen multiple answers to determine the correct translations. It said that potentially enabled translations into any language.

In a test, the website Vice translated videos into Spanish and Portuguese and saw viewing time increase more than 100%, the company said.