YouTube sees new users on board from tier II cities and beyond

Video streaming platform YouTube today said it has seen a surge in regional language content being created on its platform with new users coming on board from tier II cities and beyond.

YouTube, which has over 225 million users in the country, counts India among its fastest growing markets.

“In 2017, we witnessed a huge jump not only in the time spent on watching videos but also videos that were created by individuals here in India,” YouTube India Head (Entertainment) Satya Raghavan told PTI.

He added that over 200 channels have hit the 1 million-plus subscriber mark this year.

“And out of these channels, 80 are creator-led and original YouTube-first content,” he said.

According to industry watchers, there has been a boom in video consumption after Reliance Jio and other operators introduced affordable data plans for consumers.

Raghavan cited the example of Mastanamma, a 106-year old woman from Gudivada, a remote village in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district.

She has taken the internet world with her cooking videos through her channel, ‘Country Foods’ that uploads videos of her cooking. She has over 2,50,000 subscribers.

“She is the perfect example of how technology can empower people. From a remote village in Andhra Pradesh, she can now reach out to the world and showcase her talent,” he said.

Raghavan said another interesting trend this year was the strong traction in viewing of movie trailers.

“While fans do wait for release of different movies, this year we saw strong growth in people watching trailers.  Besides, reaction videos to trailers also found a large audience,” he said.