Lights, Camera, Investment: YouTube Dials INR 850 Cr Into India's Creator Ecosystem

 

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced an investment of ₹850 crore in two years to turbocharge India's creator economy during the WAVES 2025 conference in Mumbai. This follows ₹21,000 crore invested in Indian creators, artists, and media businesses since 2022, as Indian content attracted 45 billion hours of world watch time last year alone.

 

Key highlights:

 

Scale: Over 100 million Indian channels uploaded content in 2024, with 15,000+ surpassing 1 million subscribers.

 

Global reach: Indian creators are leveraging YouTube as a “cultural export engine”, with Prime Minister Modi’s channel (25M+ subscribers) leading as the most-followed head of government.

 

New features: Ask Music (personalized radio) and 4x playback speed for Premium users aim to enhance engagement.

 

The investment will be used to fund training, equipment, and overseas audience establishment, making India a "Creator Nation".

 

Sources: Economic Times, CNBC-TV18, India Today