YouTube content localization: 14 channels, 100M views, real lessons

If your videos are only in English, you're basically running a store with the lights on... but only for one street in a giant city.

And yes, the scary part: someone else can translate your niche faster than you can upload. That's already happening.

What happened

A YouTube creator who's been around for years (BassFishingProductions) teamed up with a localization startup called Linguana in September 2025. The deal: Linguana takes the creator's existing back catalog, recreates the voice in other languages, and publishes those localized versions on separate, region/language channels that they run day-to-day.

In about four months, Linguana launched 14 new channels for him (Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, French, Italian, Czech, Romanian, Turkish, Polish, Tagalog, Greek, Japanese, Korean). Reported results across those new channels: 100M+ views, about 500K subscribers, and monthly revenue in the "tens of thousands" of USD from the localized channels. Two of those channels (Spanish and Portuguese) crossed 100K subs and earned Silver Play Buttons.

One specific example is telling. An English upload from March 2025 has around 9M views. Localized versions posted later pulled big numbers too: Spanish about 5.7M, Portuguese 2.1M, Russian 1.1M, French 583K - with those channels still adding subscribers each month.

Linguana's business model is simple: they take a cut of the incremental revenue from the channels they manage.

Why creators should care

Distribution: YouTube already supports translated subtitles and has been pushing harder into multi-language experiences (including multi-language audio tracks and experiments with automated dubbing in the last couple years). But "features" don't automatically equal "strategy." Separate-language channels can behave like separate growth engines - different recommendations, different regional trends, different viewer habits.

Monetization: RPMs vary wildly by country and language. Sometimes you'll earn less per 1,000 views in one region - but the volume can be absurd, and sponsors in local markets can become available once you're not "that English channel people kinda watch." Also: a back catalog becomes a library you can resell to the world instead of letting it age out in one language.

Workflow: The real win here isn't "AI dubbing exists." It's the operational layer: channel management, uploads, metadata, thumbnails, localization QA, consistency. Most creators don't have the muscle for that. Agencies and localization partners do - and they're happy to take revenue share instead of upfront fees.

The catch: Voice cloning plus "it sounds like you" comes with brand risk. If a translation is off, the internet won't blame the vendor. They'll blame you. And splitting into 14 channels isn't free - community building gets harder, and you need clean boundaries so you don't cannibalize your own audience or confuse the algorithm.

What to do next

• Start with your analytics, not your ego. Check where your views already come from (even in English). If you're getting meaningful watch time from Latin America, Brazil, or Southeast Asia, that's a neon sign. Follow the signal.

• Decide: audio tracks vs. new channels. If you're testing demand, translated subtitles or multi-language audio tracks can be a low-friction start. If you're going all-in, separate channels can make sense - especially if your niche travels well and your catalog is deep.

• Pick 1-2 "pilot languages" and one hero video. Don't translate 300 uploads because you got excited on a Tuesday. Choose a proven banger and two languages. Watch retention, comments quality, and subscriber conversion for 30 days. Then scale.

• Get ruthless about rights + controls. If you work with a partner, lock down: who owns the localized channels, how revenue is reported, what happens if you leave, and approval rights for scripts/thumbnails/titles. Also make sure your voice likeness is explicitly covered. No handshakes. Paper.

• Build a "translation quality loop." Hire native reviewers (even part-time) to sanity-check phrasing, cultural references, and whether the dub matches what's on screen. One bad localization can make you look fake overnight.