What does Youtube mean worldwide?

Something I recently found was very interesting to me. In Mat Pat's video "Game Theory: How Pewdiepie Conquered Youtube", he talks about how part of Felix's (Pewdiepie) success was that he came from Europe but posted his videos in the US. This meant that Youtube sponsored him to US viewers as well as Western European viewers, both of which compromise a large portion of Youtube watchers. If Youtube sponsors different videos to different areas based on the creator's background, nationality, and subject matter, does that mean that Youtube, in China for example, would look different than the Youtube that I see.

Many of us take for granted that most of the Youtube videos that we watch are in English, and to be fair a large portion of Youtube videos are in English because it is a very prominent language, especially online. However there is also a large number of Youtube videos that are in foreign languages. So why don't we notice these videos? This is because the programmers at Youtube, in a very wise fashion, decided that we, as Americans, probably wouldn't be interested in videos that are spoken in Bengali or Arabic. As a side effect of this, we might miss out on some of the clever and innovative ideas or videos put out by foreign users.

Due to the fact that the programmers separate what people see based on the common interests of their country or the Youtuber's relation to their country, this means that their Youtube would reflect the unique cultural landscape of the place or country in which they live. I think it would be extremely interesting to do an analysis of how the cultures of different countries relate to the Youtube videos that are sponsored in their areas. For example, I do know that Youtube videos for KPop (Korean Pop Music- Gangnam Style e.g.) are extremely popular in Asian countries, yet get little showing in America except for some niche groups.

 I almost feel as if I am missing out on large parts of Youtube, as if they are hidden to me because of my cultural background. I consider this completely contrary to the point of Youtube as a video sharing service meant to bring varied ideas and creative people together. Something I would look forward to in the future is a mass translation of all Youtube videos, but the effort required for that would be monumental. The subtitle system does work, but it doesn't allow for all the importance that comes with inflection.

This all stems off of a larger argument explained in HowStuffWork's article "Why don't we all speak the same language". There is a set of pros and cons with adopting a more universal culture. If we made all Youtube videos in one consistent language it would encourage interaction between creators and give viewers access to watch all videos regardless of cultural origin. However even with the adoption of a single language, this would eliminate the cultural heritage of some languages and cause the cultural diversity that we prize on Youtube to dissapear into homogenization.

It is an interesting prospect to consider how different Youtube must be for other cultures, and how someone writing a blog about Youtube from a different country might be experiencing something absolutely different from me.

How Stuff Works Article - http://people.howstuffworks.com/speak-same-language.htm