Updated May 16 to clarify the size of YouTube's viewership in Russia.
MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is among the top five countries in terms of traffic generated for YouTube, Google's vice president and global head of content at YouTube Robert Kyncl told a news conference on Wednesday.
Russia’s growth of generated traffic on the video-sharing website, which marked its eighth birthday in April, is twice the global average, according to YouTube’s vice president for marketing Danielle Tiedt.
He said the most popular categories preferred by Internet users in Russia are comedy and music videos.
Tom Pickett, YouTube's global head of content operations, said YouTube's management wants to broaden cooperation with Russian content producers, as it views Russia as one of its priority markets.
YouTube’s global audience currently stands at a billion users. According to analyst Mark Mahaney from RBC Capital Markets, last year YouTube’s profit rose 60 percent on the previous year reaching some $4 billion, and is expected to hit $5 billion this year.
Yulia Solovyova, director of Google’s office in Russia, said YouTube’s audience in Russia currently stands at some 25 million users on the site itself and, according to comScore figures, some 51 million when counting those who view YouTube videos embedded in other websites.
