YouTube Go app rolls out to 130 more countries

YouTube has announced plans to roll out its offline viewing app YouTube Go to more than 130 countries around the world.

The service lets users download content to watch offline and gives them more control over their data usage. It was designed to improve the viewing experience on slower networks.

The app’s homescreen features videos that are locally trending, the service is localised in different languages and it also lets users share videos without using any data.

YouTube Go launched in India last April and since then has expanded to 14 additional countries including Indonesia, Nigeria and Thailand.

With the expansion YouTube said that it is making some design changes to allow users to watch in high quality resolutions, get notifications when new content is uploaded to channels, and share multiple videos at once.

“We’re excited to expand YouTube Go to over 130 countries around the globe starting today. YouTube Go gives access to YouTube regardless of connectivity status and more control over data usage, while being locally and socially relevant,” said Jay Akkad, product manager, YouTube.

The news came on the same day that Roku added YouTube’s subscription television offering, YouTube TV, to Roku players and TVs in the US.

YouTube TV is an over-the-top TV offering that is available in 80 metro areas in the US for US$35 per month. It gives users access to more than 40 TV networks including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CW, Disney Channel and ESPN.

The YouTube Go news also coincided with YouTube parent company Alphabet’s fourth quarter and full year earnings report.

On the earnings call Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that every month more than 1.5 billion people come to YouTube to watch their favourite content. He also claimed that there are more than 1 billion learning-related video views every day on YouTube.

“With all this great content, people are thinking of YouTube more as a key part of their TV viewing experience,” said Pichai.

“For the Tuesday night State of the Union, more partners used YouTube to live stream the address than ever before, generating 5 million live views, and just yesterday we announced a partnership with Major League Soccer’s LA Football Club.”

“There is great momentum around the world with localised versions of YouTube now in 90 countries in 80 different languages. Just this morning, we announced that we are expanding the popular YouTube Go app to over 130 countries around the globe.”

Alphabet reported fourth quarter revenues of US$32.3 billion, up 24% year-on-year, and operating income of US$7.66 billion, up 15%.