India fastest-growing & largest market for YouTube

NEW DELHI: India has overtaken the US as the largest and fastest-growing market for YouTube globally, with dirt-cheap data tariffs and affordable smartphones pushing video consumption to record highs. The usage has been led by content in local languages on subjects as diverse as learning and education, music, health and cooking.

Part of American tech giant Google, YouTube now has 26.5 crore subscribers in the country, and nearly 95% of this consumption is in local vernacular languages happening in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, a company official told TOI.

Data tariffs in India are the lowest in the world and have been coming down since the launch of mobile services by Reliance Jio in September 2016. At present, 1 GB data costs less than Rs 10 compared to Rs 100 two-to-three years back.



“With less than 20% of local population conversant in English, online video content in native Indian languages is becoming a primary driver for internet usage,” the official said. “Diversity of Indian content on YouTube has never been this good before. With low-cost data, we have seen a rise in consumption of content across verticals, including tech, beauty, health, fitness, dance and food.”

In 2018, learning and education content became one of the fastest-growing categories on YouTube in India, driving over a billion views a day on YouTube globally. YouTube shared insights on the exponential growth of online video ecosystem at its annual flagship event Brandcast.