YouTube's Search for the Next 'Gangnam Style'

With China off-limits, Google’s video arm is expanding elsewhere

Gekidan Squash’s early videos were filmed in the actors’ homes. Google’s space offers the group larger sets and HD cameras

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Bruce Einhorn

March 1, 2013 at 3:41 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (13_10, portrait_2x)

This article is part of the March 4, 2013 issue of businessweek.

One of the ritziest addresses in Tokyo is Roppongi Hills, a vast commercial, retail, and residential complex with two art galleries, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, and tenants including Goldman Sachs and Barclays. There are also bald vampires clad in tighty-whities and body paint filming in Google’s new video studio.

The Roppongi Hills studio is central to YouTube’s first significant effort at audience-building in Asia. The online video giant’s other two studios, in Los Angeles and London, help popular creators develop original programming for its online video channels. In Japan, YouTube’s biggest regional success story in Asia, the company is recruiting online video stars to bolster its local-language channels with more targeted original programming and higher production values. YouTube only launched dedicated local-language channels for Southeast Asia last year, and censorship still keeps Google’s video service out of China. Compared with the U.S., “Asia has come a little bit later” for YouTube, says David Macdonald, head of the video service’s Asia-Pacific content operations.