from providing Internet access to helping people find and view content
AOL, which is trying to grow its online advertising business
worldwide, has localized its video search site for eight countries and
added two languages for its India portal, the company said Wednesday.
AOL has extended the local versions of its Truveo video search site to
France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the United
Kingdom. Within two months, versions will be launched for Australia,
Brazil, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey, the
company said.
Truveo came under AOL's wing in early 2006, and the company has sought
to grow the site as its traffic figures have risen with increased
demand for online video.
Unlike Google's YouTube, Truveo doesn't store content but instead
indexes it from sources around the Internet. Truveo can pull some
videos into a window embedded in its Web site, or direct users to
where the video is hosted. Truveo also groups videos by category, and
AOL has created some localized popular categories, such as
cricket-related clips for India.
AOL's main site for India is in English, but the company said it has
added new content channels in Tamil and Hindi that cover news,
astrology, and movies. AOL said more than half of Indians who are
active online users -- about 30 million people -- prefer reading in
their own native language.
AOL, which is owned by Time Warner, is trying to change the focus of
its from providing Internet access to helping people find and view
content. The company had seen a sharp drop in subscription revenue,
which still counts for the majority of its profits.
Earlier this month, AOL said it would cut 2,000 jobs worldwide, or
about 20 percent of its workforce, while building up its online
advertising business. It recently acquired three online ad firms and
started Platform A, a new subsidiary in charge of selling online ads
across its Web properties.
