Malaysians say YouTube is the #1 video service they watch the most

YouTube Malaysia hosts its ‘YouTube Works for Malaysia 2023’ – an annual celebration that shines a spotlight on the vibrant YouTube ecosystem and commits to shedding light on YouTube’s effectiveness and efficiency as an advertising platform.

At the event last night, YouTube unveiled the winners of “Best of Malaysia” YouTube Works Awards and the nine finalists that will be representing Malaysia at the first-ever regional “YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia 2023”, which will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 12.

According to a survey by Kantar, YouTube is the #1 video service Malaysians say they watch the most. The same survey also found that YouTube is #1 for Malaysians as it allows them to access a wide variety of content types such as short, long or live videos, as well as for content they can’t find anywhere else.

Loh Ben Jern, Head of YouTube Malaysia said, “Globally, over 500 hours of content is uploaded on YouTube every minute. And today, more hours of content are created than ever before. In Malaysia, over 7M people streamed YouTube on their Connected TV, making it the fastest growing screen in the last 5 years.

We’ve also seen an explosion of Shorts – just last year we saw 50B daily views. Today, I’m proud to share that YouTube Shorts has hit 70B views globally every 24 hours,  a 40% increase in less than a year, and average daily views in Southeast Asia grew by over 130% year-on-year.

“Yet among the hundreds of video content and channels available, Malaysians continue to choose YouTube. We believe it’s because YouTube does it all. Whether it’s a snappy 6-second video or a two-hour podcast, YouTube works seamlessly across devices – from mobile to the biggest screen in the house.

And we’re humbled to learn that YouTube remains the most-watched and most-loved video platform for Malaysians in a world where they can watch anything,” he added.

Rohan Raghavan, Head of Tech, Telco, Media & Entertainment, Finance said, “AI is central to YouTube, powering features that protect viewers from harmful content, connect people with content they love, optimize user experience and most recently, taking the friction out of the creative process and allowing YouTube creators to reach more viewers.

Today, Google AI is enabling businesses both big and small to drive results in a cost efficient way by elevating their creative content and helping them reach the right audience.

Google AI-powered tools include:

• YouTube Ads Creative Guidance, AI-powered tool that automatically provides an assessment of an ad campaign and suggests best practices to improve it, such as adding a voiceover or including the right video orientation

• Video View Campaign, the AI-powered campaign helps advertisers get the most views across all of YouTube’s video formats by delivering the best-performing creatives to audiences who are more likely to consider their brand

• Demand Gen, uses AI to help brands serve ads across our most engaging surfaces including YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Gmail and Discover

In celebration of brands who have creatively and effectively leveraged YouTube to connect with their audiences, “Best of Malaysia” winners of the YouTube Works Awards were unveiled.  In its eighth year, YouTube Works Awards recognizes and celebrates the most compelling, effective, and creative YouTube campaigns.

Brands are competing across eight categories at the Southeast Asia level, while three winners from the pool of nine finalists were selected as the “Best of Malaysia”, with U Mobile taking home the first place with its Chinese New Year 2023 campaign – The Grand Love, a heartwarming story to connect the older and younger generations together through the purest form of a grand love via new technology.

The second place goes to sooka Malaysia for its Liga Malaysia 2023 Campaign Relaunch and third place belongs to Sunsilk Malaysia which creatively tapped into the hype of Blackpink’s concert in Malaysia to connect with their Gen Z audience.

These winning campaigns have demonstrated outstanding creativity in various aspects, including planning storytelling, forging strategic and creative partnerships between brands and content creators, and effectively utilizing YouTube’s capabilities to engage target audiences while delivering tangible business outcomes.

Here are the list of Malaysia finalists who will be representing Malaysia at the YouTube Works Awards Southeast Asia 2023:

The Big Bang

1. McDonald’s – #McDDoDaDip Chicken McNuggets

2. sooka Malaysia – sooka Liga Malaysia 2023 Campaign Relaunch

The Long and Short

1. McDonald’s – #McDDoDaDip Chicken McNuggets

2. Berocca – BerSahur Bersama Berocca

The Collaborator

1. Sunsilk Malaysia – Fandom First : Sunsilk Owning the fandom x Blackpink Standing out in Culture

The Fire Starter

1. U Mobile – U Mobile presents The Grand Love for CNY 2023

2. Berocca – BerSahur Bersama Berocca

The Changemaker

1. Colgate – Colgate Smile Strong

2. MR.DIY – The Rude Girl

The Connected Canvas

1. McDonald’s – Best Burger

2. Hong Leong Bank – Going 1-2-3 with HLB Connect!