Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, Youtube

Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, YouTube is delivering the opening keynote on Day Two of the Broadband LATAM conference, taking place on 2 – 3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about his role at YouTube, what he’s working on right now and what YouTube plans are for future growth.

First up, what excites you most about your role at YouTube?

I was fortunate to join YouTube at the beginning of our mobile efforts, when we were working with operators to bring video to phones. We did not lack for sceptics, but we worked hard and delivered an engaging video experience that users could enjoy at home or on the go. People watch more than 25 per cent of all YouTube videos on their mobile device, and this number keeps growing. YouTube’s device partnerships will be a catalyst for even more users to experience YouTube in the years to come.

I believe we are playing a key role in changing how the world is informed and entertained. With more than seven billion people on earth, only two billion have ever accessed the internet, and only one billion have smartphones. Our device efforts are the likely means of reaching those people who have not yet had access to internet services. As the past years have shown us, once you give people access to information and commerce, they innovate in ways we could not have expected and end up changing the world.

The Broadband LATAM conference is taking place on 2 – 3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Click here to download a brochure.

What’s the tech gadget that you can’t live without at the moment?

My smartphone has become an integral part of my everyday life but I think the real question for me is what apps can’t I live without? There are probably ten apps I depend upon throughout the week. One of my favourite new apps is “Get It Now”, which matches customers who’d like to have an item delivered with couriers and bike messengers who have the free capacity to deliver this item. I tend to use it for delivering food from my favourite San Francisco restaurants that haven’t arranged their own delivery service.

What cool new things are you working on right now?

Over the past year, I helped incubate a new business focused on cross platform multi-screen experiences, the YouTube app on your smartphone or tablet can automatically pair with the YouTube experience on your SmartTV. This enables seamless sharing of content through our “send to TV” feature, selecting videos on your mobile screen that you’d like to view on your connected TV screen, while using your mobile screen for command and control or queuing up the next video to watch.

Where are the most promising opportunities for growth for YouTube in the next couple of years?

The majority of my attention is focused on leading our emerging market device partnership efforts, where a tremendous number of users are coming online for the first time, and primarily doing so on mobile devices.  Working with operators and device manufacturers to enable a good YouTube experience from day one of a user’s internet exposure is key to this mission. With 100 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, content discovery is of utmost importance. Depending on the region and language, different YouTube content will be more relevant to those users. Whether it’s a feature phone, smartphone, tablet, or connected TV, we want to surface the content users’ care most about to the screen closest to their eyes.

YouTube has increased its focus on monetising content in recent years? Would you explore models that would remove in-video advertising for consumers?

Today, there are more than one million channels generating advertising revenue on YouTube. Our goal is to give video creators more flexibility to monetise and distribute their content to reach the fan communities that made their channels a hit, including our recently announced plans for a self-service subscription model.

My TV, Blu-ray player, console and phone are all from different manufacturers but all have custom YouTube interfaces. Why are all of these necessary?

The TV is often the largest and most beautiful screen in the home for enjoying videos. Regardless of your brand of TV, game console, or phone, you should be able to enjoy YouTube on any device without having to re-learn how to use the application for that specific device. That’s simply not the case at the moment. With new features like our “send to TV” that automatically pair your phone and your TV, and efforts with partners to improve latency and performance, we are actively working to simplify the experience across the device ecosystem.