The director of YouTube India, Ishan John Chatterjee, revealed in an interview with CNBC TV 18 that a recent study conducted jointly by YouTube and Oxford Economics found that YouTube’s content creation and creative ecosystem contributed around INR 16,000 crore to the Indian GDP, which is equivalent to almost 7.5 lakh full-time jobs. This is a testament to India’s growing content economy. This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22% and will reach around $4 billion by 2030.
We can trace the creation of content to the introduction of YouTube in 2005. Jawed Karin, one of the Co-Founders of YouTube, was part of the first wave of YouTubers. Then came the second wave of YouTubers, which consisted of prominent YouTubers like MKBHD and Casey Neistat. However, with over 51 million channels, YouTube now has the highest number of content creators on its platform, with around 2.5 billion active monthly users. As of now, the creator economy of the USA is around $24 billion. It is expected to grow by 6-fold by 2030 to $142.91 billion.
The same is true for India. The first wave of YouTubers paved the way for many new YouTubers to follow. Although the creator ecosystem in India started way back in the mid-2000s, the real boom came in 2020. According to various news reports from 2020, the viewership of YouTube in India increased by more than 20%; this gave rise to even more content creators. India now has over 7,000 channels with over 1 million subscribers and over 75,000 YouTube channels with over 100,000 subscribers. All of this amounts to $2 billion in the creator economy, which is around 0.05% of India’s $4 trillion economy. However, this share is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, along with the reach and viewership of these content creators.
With a reach of millions, content creators are a good way for businesses to market their products or services. Many businesses in India and worldwide recognise this opportunity and hire YouTubers and content creators to market their brands. Long gone are the days when companies used celebrities to act as brand ambassadors for marketing purposes. Companies recognise their audience and hire creators in that field to promote their products or services.
For example, mobile phone companies like Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus collaborate with tech creators like Technical Guruji or MrWhoseTheBoss to reach their target audience. Moreover, hotels and Airlines give free tickets to travel YouTubers so that they can review their service and post a positive review. Airlines like Etihad and Emirates have been known to offer free tickets to YouTubers like Casey Niestat. Collaboration content creators work for new as well as established companies. For example, Nike collaborated with Former American Footballer and influencer Colin Kaepernick for their “Dream Crazy” campaign. Due to that campaign, Nike’s online sales increased by a whopping 31%.
However, the advent of AI has significantly increased competition within the content creation industry, and new and refined AI models will increase it even further. The director of YouTube India, Ishan John Chatterjee, mentioned that YouTube will soon come up with AI tools to aid the content creation process for YouTubers. Ishan mentioned that after the launch of the AI tools, creators will be able to streamline the content creation process and can invest more of their time in the quality of the content. These tools also include Dream Screen, which is totally free and provides a background for YouTubers based on their choice and prompt. So, it’s safe to say that the creator economy of India and the world is projected to generate more revenue than ever in the near future. Moreover, the emergence of new and more versatile social media platforms will give rise to new creators, increasing the creator economy even further. This might be the best time to start your own YouTube channel; who knows what’s written in the stars?
