More than 1,200 content creators on YouTube India have crossed the million-subscriber threshold, just five years ago there were only two creators with one million subscribers. As per a KPMG Report, 230 million Indian language users are online today, and 95 per cent of all online video consumption is in India languages.
Taking consideration with the apparent growth in the language content, YouTube India is looking for opportunities to capitalize on that. Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships, India stated, “We are exploring alternative monetization streams for our creators, including sponsorships, merchandise and ticketing on the main app in beta, and a feature for fans to fund the content and creators they love.” Along with that, it is imperative that creators are aware of the changing trends. Raghavan added, “Creators need to understand the feedback we’re hearing from advertisers on what they are willing against and what they’re not – we’re figuring out better forums to provide this background.”
YouTube India has come up with the production of ‘YouTube Originals’ – with India-specific productions like ‘ARRived’, ‘Straight Up Punjab’ and ‘Off the Page’. YouTube has said to constantly innovate and come up bringing more sponsored India YouTube Originals that will drive more advertisers to connect with more consumers. Speaking on the demographic demand and supply of YouTube content, Raghavan said, “The growth in India is not just coming from metro cities but from across the country. Today, 95 per cent of all online video consumption is in Indian languages with Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.” The content from comedy, food, web series, beauty, health and fitness continue to be the most popular and growing genres in the medium. The language ecosystem in the YouTube content has said to deepened in languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and broadened with new languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Marathi.