Dato Yasmin Mahmood (centre left), Chief Executive Officer of MDEC; Sajith Sivanandan (centre right), Managing Director of Google Malaysia, Vietnam, Phillippines and New Emerging Markets; Don Anderson (second right), Head of YouTube Kids & Learning, APAC; with the rest of the local content creators posing for a group photo
Today, in honor of creative efforts of local content creators such as Upin & Ipin and BoBoiBoy for being featured on YouTube Kids App, MDEC together with Google Malaysia have hosted an event to celebrate these home-grown companies for their achievements.
YouTube Kids App was launched in early October and since then, some other remarkable animation icons including Les Copaque, Animonsta Studios and Digital Durian were being featured on the app, along with hundreds of other well-known international children's programmes, underlining that Malaysia talents have what it takes to produce world-class animation content.
“We are extremely proud of our home-grown talents for their achievements in driving Malaysia's creative content industry. Malaysia's talent pool is growing in both quality and quantity and as the nation's ICT custodian, MDEC will continue to create opportunities and develop capabilities of local talents to produce world-class content. The road ahead is a promising one and as such, we will not rest at our laurels; instead we will forge ahead with more popular content from our brilliant talents.” said Dato Yasmin Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer of MDEC at the celebratory affair this evening.
Just last year, the local animation industry recorded a remarkable growth by 52% in exports based on contributions from key companies such as Animonsta, Giggle Garage, Tau Films, Les' Copaque and many more. With these new and original contents in YouTube Kids, parents can expect their children to discover new educational and fun things online that will help stimulate their minds and encourage learning.
“Malaysians are spending more time watching YouTube on their devices - 65% of watch time on YouTube in Malaysia is via mobile.” said Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director of Google Malaysia, Vietnam, Phillippines and New Emerging Markets. “YouTube Kids offers popular content from family-friendly channels and playlist and today is all about getting more Malaysian discover what they love on YouTube.”
MDEC will continue to promote and introduce the latest media platforms to continuously build and unlock the potentials of the new media sector. To encourage more content creators to start their companies and create content for YouTube first, MDEC also hopes that the collaboration with Google will provide tools and training to boost their chances of local and international success.
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