Google Rethinks Sharing, Discussion of Content to Keep Users Inside YouTube Platform
Google is working on a new social chat platform within the YouTube app, and it’s testing the feature in Canada first.
The feature revolves around a new sharing button and the addition of group conversations. The idea is for people to discuss YouTube content inside the platform and not switch to a messaging app to share and discuss videos.
“We wanted to start with Canada because Canadians are sharing 15 per cent more videos than the average user, so it’s interesting to see this is actually a behaviour that happens more in Canada,” Shimrit Ben Yair, a product manager for Google, told the Financial Post. “We launched this feature as an experiment last year (to a small group) and now we are rolling it out worldwide. We thought this was a nice way to expand and really answer a need that exists in the market.”
Digital video consumption has increased 44% in Canada over the last four years, according to research firm eMarketer. Mobile video consumption is up 127%.
Google says Canadians should see the new features in their updated YouTube app as early as today.
