Amid the rapid changes that have been seen online in recent years, apps and social media spaces have shape-shifted into unrecognisable products, however YouTube has remained loyal to its original premise, while staying ahead of the curve.
In a conversation with The National, Pedro Pina, YouTube’s vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, reflected on the way relationships the brand has built with its creators have given it a unique advantage in drawing in big audiences.
Now the platform is recognising its growing responsibility to provide reliable information in underserved areas of the internet.
Pina visited Abu Dhabi last month to launch a new initiative YouTube Health at the Cleveland Clinic, which he describes as a significant milestone for the platform. “People turn to YouTube with urgent questions,” he says. “When it comes to health, we realised that while text-based search offers credible references, the video ecosystem simply didn’t have enough high-quality information.”
Rather than waiting for an ecosystem to build on the platform, they have collaborated with global institutions such as the World Health Organisation and Mayo Clinic. Inviting established professionals to become content creators. “We reached out to a bunch of doctors to ask them: ‘Would you like to be a YouTuber?’” Pina says, “We now have doctors in a lot of countries, fully licensed and fully operative, producing content and answering questions on YouTube channels.”
It's a move which has been welcomed, Dr Harpreet Sood the co-founder and medical director of Skai Health, tells The National how important platforms such as YouTube can be in educating people.
"It is an important distribution channel and very useful to engage, build an audience and reach many people. It helps to build trust and ensures the public are getting trusted, scientifically valid and evidence-based information," Dr Sood says.
"I say it’s great, but make sure to follow and get advice only from trusted and validated sources. Many of my patients bring information and actually it is very useful. I often learn, we use shared decision making and also gives me encouragement that the patient in front of me is engaged in their health and will lead to better outcomes and engagement."
He adds that steps being taken to manage the reliability of content can only be a good thing, saying: "There is a lot of misinformation out there, and as advocates for our patients, we need guardrails in place to make sure verified information is provided."
The experiments aren’t limited to medical content. YouTube has put a lot of effort into getting AI to help with their mission to “give everyone a voice and show them the world,” Pina explains, and demonstrates by playing a video of himself speaking in fluent German.
With a laugh, he explains his lack of German skills and how AI had helped to not only translate the video, but make it seem like he was communicating in German. This is part of their future plans, a limitless audience for creators, even those without language skills all learning from verified sources.
YouTube is endeavouring to create a more inclusive future, Pina insists, which is best understood through the stories of individual creators. He recalls one in particular, a Dutch knitting enthusiast, who built a global audience despite living with a benign facial tumour.
“She would never have been put in front of a camera by traditional broadcasters,” he says. “On YouTube, she found millions of people who cared about her work. Children with the same rare condition now see her as an inspiration.”
This has arguably been central to the success of the platform, even the smallest niche can build a substantial audience if the reach is global. This led to the platform adopting a radical business model, and others have copied since.
Pina describes it as a “virtuous circle", explaining that creators attract audiences, audiences attract advertisers and the resulting revenue allows creators to reinvest in their work. Crucially, the majority of that revenue remains in the creator’s home market.
“There’s this idea that big tech takes money out,” says Pina. “The reality is more than half of ad revenue stays with creators in the UAE and across the region. Many hire editors, writers and producers, fuelling a local creative economy.”
But the message is clear as he reiterates that it’s not just about the money, it’s about the people and sharing information and culture.
