YouTube hires Don Anderson from We Are Social for APAC kids content role
YouTube has hired former We Are Social regional managing director Don Anderson to be head of kids and learning partnerships at YouTube APAC.
Anderson will remain in Singapore and will be the APAC lead for YouTube Kids and also “wider kids-related partnerships based in Singapore”, according to a YouTube spokesperson.
YouTube Kids, the app that shows content only suitable for kids, launched last year in the US and was followed by launched in the UK and Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Part of Anderson’s role will be to lead the New Zealand and Australian partnerships but YouTube said that it had “nothing to share” on whether the service would be rolled out more widely in Southeast Asia.
YouTube Kids came under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US last year after consumer groups complained that it “utilised unfair and deceptive marketing techniques”. It decided to stand by its channel-only approach to ads on the app when it rolled out the service outside the US and kept a complete ban on pre-roll ads for food and drink, which it believes to be child-safe.
Anderson was regional managing director of We Are Social, covering the Asia region, a promotion from his original job as managing director of the Singapore office. Prior to that he was SVP of regional strategic digital integration at FleishmanHillard.