Yes, it's true! 85% Indian users access YouTube on mobile phones

Search engine giant Google's video platform YouTube has said that as much as 85 percent of its users now access the platform on their mobile phones in the country, up from 73 percent last year. The video platform has a monthly active user-base to 265 million now in the country (as of January 2019), up from 225 million last year. The platform entered the country just 11 years ago. "With 265 million active users, India is now our biggest audience and one of our fastest growing markets in the world. Today we are the first-stop content consumption, be it for entertainment or information. It's this variety of content, combined with the growing reach that makes us a perfect platform for brands to drive personalised engagement," YouTube global chief executive Susan Wojcicki told the annual YouTube event Brandcast India.

At 265 million monthly active users, YouTube is much ahead of the GEC genre as whole. She said in the past one year alone, YouTube consumption on the mobile has increased to 85 percent, with 60 percent of watch-time coming in from outside of the six large metros. Mobile consumption was around 73 percent last year.

"Today over there are 1,200 Indian creators who have over 1 million subscribers. Just five years ago, only two creators had 1 million subscribers," Wojcicki added.

YouTube, which had in 2018 launched its first original music-based show 'Arrived', said it will be launching more of original content that would be ad-supported in the country. According to media buying agency GroupM, digital accounted for 18 percent of total the media spend in the country in 2018, of which digital video was only 6 percent of total Adex.

YouTube, which brought in YouTube Music to the country last month, has seen 3 million users in the first week, Wojcicki claimed.

"Right here in India, more and more people are using videos for entertainment and learning. And by 2020, it's expected that 500 million Internet users here will consume video online, clearly underlining the momentum and the vast potential," she said.

YouTube's global music head Lyor Cohen said, "we are incredibly excited to partner with Indian artists and labels to grow faster and go further".