YouTube Shorts, which was introduced a year ago to compete with Instagram Reels and TikTok, is generating 15 billion views globally on a daily basis with a ‘meaningful share’ coming from India, says Satya Raghavan, Director , YouTube Content Partnership, India said.
The shorts, which are still in beta stage, were first unveiled in India last year, and were later introduced in other markets.
Raghavan said, “We have indeed seen a new breed of creators who have come to the platform with the launch of the shorts.” Hindu. “And, in that process, a lot of existing creators have adapted as well. Shorts allows you to create a video on the fly. It’s made creation a lot easier for a lot of people.”
In the first phase of building a monetization model for ‘Shorts’, where the company does not yet run ads, YouTube recently announced a $100 million fund distributed over 2021-2022, allowing eligible creators to claim payment. can.
Mr Raghavan said it is a bit early to talk about how the Shorts Fund has been used for YouTube, with the number of channels in India growing over ₹1 lakh and above in revenue by over 60% year-on-year. , as of June.
He said that in India, YouTube had over 4,000 channels with over one million subscribers as of June, which is a 50% increase annually. In addition, around 140 channels have more than 10 million subscribers.
“In terms of how much Indian creators make as compared to international creators… they are a big advertising and subscription market. So, we are seeing a lot of international creators in some rich countries like the US, but India is the only way to see them. Revenue is becoming more vibrant in terms of the number of streams that producers are able to tap,” he added.
As for the shorts, Mr. Raghavan said music was a big driver, with comedy, learning (from crafts to science to DIY) and inspiring content emerging as popular consumption segments.
“It all really shows you the kind of velocity and momentum that we have in our ecosystem. The way we’re looking at it is that the sky is literally the limit for creators at the moment,” he said.
Responding to a query on competition from other platforms offering similar short video features, Mr. Raghavan said, “Each platform brings out a specific strength and it is up to the creator to realize that and then on all platforms. Please register your presence. What we realized over time is that because of YouTube’s unique business model, it is the place where multiple revenue streams exist at the same time. This proves to be a huge difference for YouTube, be it shorts or traditional video formats. “
On particular trends observed by the company during the pandemic, he said that India as a country seemed to be striving to become more financially literate. “We have certainly seen a lot of people in smaller towns tap into the demat platform… (and) in turn creating a new breed of YouTube creators on the platform who are focused on financial literacy.”
He pointed out that creators like Nitin Bhatia, use channel subscriptions to share exclusive educational videos on stocks, real estate and personal finance with their members, and have seen a nearly six-fold increase in YouTube revenue within 18 months.
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