YouTube’s creative entrepreneurs contributed ₹10,000-cr to Indian economy

YouTube, today, announced the findings of the latest Oxford Economics study that illustrates the significant impact of YouTube’s creator economy on the lives of Indians and the economy at large. The report by the independent consulting firm estimates that in 2021 YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed over INR 10,000 Cr* to the Indian GDP and supporting more than 750,000* full-time equivalent jobs in India in 2021. 

Today, billions of people consume the content powered by YouTube creators in India the worldover. This has helped creators unlock monetization opportunities, allowing many to convert their passions into sustainable careers. Powered by the thriving creator economy, YouTube has become a place where people can learn the skills they’ll need to pursue a career or become an entrepreneur. This further unlocks new opportunities, spurring more economic growth. 

Speaking about YouTube’s economic impact in the country, Ajay Vidyasagar, Director - South, SouthEast Asia & APAC Emerging Markets, YouTube, said, “YouTube, in India, is woven into the fabric of our lives. We are delighted that YouTube’s creative ecosystem continues to power India’s creator economy, supporting new jobs and opportunities across the length and breadth of the country. We have come a long way in this journey and remain committed to introducing new ways for creators to engage with their audiences, across languages, and grow their revenues.”

James Lambert, Director of Economic Consulting, Asia, said, “YouTube’s creative ecosystem makes a rich and multi-faceted contribution to the Indian economy, society and the broader cultural landscape. We surveyed over 5,000 Indian creators, 500 Indian businesses and over 4,000 Indian users to understand how this ecosystem adds value to the economy and impacts people’s lives. We estimate that the creative ecosystem contributed ₹10,000 Crores to Indian GDP and supported 7,50,000 full time equivalent jobs in 2021.”

Recognizing the power of video to simplify complex topics and improve access to information for viewers across the country, YouTube announced new features for learning and expanded support to bring more authoritative healthcare content from expert partners. 

YouTube announced that Courses, a new product, to bring a richer learning experience for viewers and a new way to monetize for creators would begin rolling out in beta in 2023.

Ishan John Chatterjee, Director, India, YouTube, said, “YouTube, today, is already the largest virtual library for learning, with one of the most vibrant learning creator communities in India. We continue investing in ways to enable our viewers to learn valuable skills and gain access to knowledge that helps them achieve their potential and follow their dreams. And, we remain committed to unlocking new ways for our creators to scale their presence and earnings.”

YouTube is also expanding our work with leading healthcare providers in India to enable creation of local language health content. Towards this, YouTube is piloting an AI-enabled solution, Aloud, that will allow a small group of healthcare providers to simplify the process of dubbing and creating content that supports uploading a single video with multiple audio tracks. These features will enable creators to deliver multilingual content with ease and help viewers discover and access more content in their preferred language. 

“Video is a particularly effective format for sharing health information in ways that are accessible and digestible not only to a professional audience but to everyone. We want to help truly democratize important health information. And, we remain committed to working closely with experts in healthcare and investing in technologies that will enable them to create multilingual content efficiently, to reach audiences at scale,” Ishan added. 

Here is a recap of key announcements from YouTube, unveiled at Google for India: 

Democratizing access to high quality health information

YouTube announced that it would expand efforts to work with more healthcare institutions - including Narayana, Manipal, Medanta, and Shalby - to create and amplify credible content, covering more than 100 conditions, across Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali and English.  

Ashish Bajaj, Chief Marketing Officer, Narayana Health, said, “Our partnership has enabled authentic medical information to reach the masses. The platform helps provide a glimpse into our constant endeavour to provide access to quality care.”

Enabling equitable access to Health info for Indic language users

YouTube will also support partners to achieve scale and efficiency in creating multilingual content. Aloud, a new AI/ML product incubated within Google, makes dubbing easy by transcribing, translating and dubbing original content, in very little time at no additional cost. A small group of hospitals, as part of an early access program, are currently using Aloud to easily generate local language dubs on important health related videos, and make that information more easily accessible. 

To make it easy for viewers to discover and consume content in a language they prefer, YouTube is also testing the ability to have a single video with multiple audio tracks across different languages. This feature can help viewers across India’s diverse linguistic landscape to find trusted health content, that may have otherwise been inaccessible, by simply choosing between various language options within a video. 

Bringing a richer learning experience for audiences

Next year, qualified creators in India can begin offering free or paid Courses to provide in-depth, structured learning experiences for viewers. Courses will not only support richer learning experiences for audiences but also offer creators a new monetization option. LearnoHub, Speak English With Aishwarya, and Telusko among others will develop courses across academic and vocational subjects in various Indian languages in the beta phase.

Roshni Mukherjee, YouTube creator, LearnoHub, said, “Passionate about teaching, I always wanted to build a free learning platform and make quality education affordable and accessible to all. YouTube as a platform enabled me to create quality educational content and make it accessible to millions. I am excited to expand my repertoire of learning content with Courses and bring even more immersive content for my community.”