YouTube continues to localize its presence throughout Latin America, yesterday YouTube Mexico was launched. One of the more famous videos coming out of Mexico on YouTube was Edgar, so it was only appropriate from him to welcome Youtube to Mexico. Several copycats have popped up such as BuscaTube, notice logo; it was only really a matter of time before YouTube would come in. I wonder what Latin American country will be next: Chile, Argentina?

The launch of YouTube Mexico definitely opens more advertising / promotional opportunities for marketers - I wonder what company will be the first to use it and how. At the moment I can only see a English Smirnoff promotion (US IP address).

A very astute client forwarded a link to a video on YouTube that I think is a must-see for every client.  We are getting to the stage where companies understand that consumers have lost interest in one way marketing messages but are willing to having conversations with marketers.  However, companies are still struggling with how to maintain some semblance of control while creating a participatory marketing framework.  This funny video, created by an ad agency in Belgium, does a great job of poking fun at the problem while showcasing the potential impact of continuing with marketing business as usual.

Nice job, and thanks Julie and Vickie for the link.

Last night I went to The Police concert here in Miami – great show. As I was looking at the crowd (had a great view from far away – not so great to see Sting, Andy, and Stewart) I saw hundreds of small lights sprinkled throughout the spectators. What used to be lighters had been replaced by small LCD screens, concert goers were now holding up their mobile phones, cameras, and other devices recording the show.

This morning I decided to search YouTube and Flickr – sure enough both videos and photos of the concert were already posted – some directly from the stadium. While the immediacy of information and content created by the users is nothing new – it was extremely interesting to witness it in action on such a massive scale.

Terra Networks Chile has just launched their online television service: Terra TV, which will feature over 90 international channels and 200 channels through a partnership with JumpTV.  In initial broadcasts, Terra TV showcased World Cup games, the Rio Carnival, and the Oscars.  Chile is the country with the highest internet penetration in Latin America, about 42.4% according to Internet World Stats, while the region as a whole is at about 19%.

At about the same time, YouTube has launched various localized websites, including Brazil (Portuguese) and Spain (Spanish) – I am not sure how this will fly in the LATAM region as the Spanish flag does not relate to any South or Central American country, but at least the interface is in Spanish.

Brazil’s internet penetration is at about 17%, but accounts for over 30 million internet users, making it the country with the most “surfers” in LATAM.  Interestingly enough, Brazil has also developed many of its own web 2.0 sites and applications, they have even created an interface for Second Life in Portuguese – Linden Dollars can be converted to Reals.

Back to video, Latin America is also one of the regions with the lowest broadband access, however, it also has the highest growth and from what we can tell with the various initiatives launched in the last weeks, watching videos online is becoming more and more common.