Indonesia’s homegrown answer to YouTube, layartancap.com is an interesting little site with heaps of potential. If only it had better content…
For starters, the “true streaming” vids posted here take a fraction of the time to load as YouTube clips when using a typical (read: slow) Indo internet connection. The site claims the faster speed has to do with its location in IIX (Indonesia’s Internet Exchange). I’m not sure if this actually cuts down your internet bills, but they say it does.
The definition of “Layar Tancap” itself means a free screening, usually in an open-air field such as a football field — it is often organized by a company as a promotional tool for its products. It’s an apt metaphor for the”all-and-sundry” content on the site, which pretty much reflects the interests of young, mainstream Indonesian internet users. Expect uploads of video games, sports, anime, TV shows, soft-core nudie clips [I'd say "porn",but that's illegal, you know], pop music vids, and more cewek cewek [girls, again] than a horny young browser can shake his mouse at.
Forget anything underground or avant-garde. The first thing to pop up when I did a search for “OK Video” was a farcical Korean MV featuring “Drakula” with a gaggle of young honeys sitting on his lap, attempting booty jiggles in his direction and (?!) eating fried chicken drumsticks. Political commentary is limited to news clips from Gaza, George W. Bush bloopers, 9/11 conspiracy theories and a mixed bag of praise and scorn for President Yudhoyono.
Ok Drakula!!!
What I found the most disappointing was how little Indonesian content this Indonesian site contains. I’d estimate over 50% of it comes from east Asia or the west. Also, I searched for a half dozen or so keywords on some cultural and geographical highlights of the archipelago, and two clips on Komodo dragons were the only things that come up! Whereas YouTube is loaded with this type of stuff, it seems Indonesian users would prefer to upload content of digitized killer robots and teenage nymphets.