YouTube content watched in India and Indian YouTube content have both grown by over 80% YoY.
YouTube announced that content partners Culture Machine, OML, Qyuki, and The Viral Fever (TVF) are set to launch four new original properties on YouTube. This announcement marks another milestone in the growth of the Indian YouTube creator community.
First out of the gate in April will be #LaughterGames, where nine comedy creators will launch their own comedy web series, featuring among others, YouTube comedians such as East India Comedy, Put Chutney and Kenny Sebastian, who were all present at Friday's YouTube FanFest. In the coming months, Culture Machine will be launching Beauty Hunt, a beauty and style-centric program, while OML will launch season 2 of its successful Comedy Hunt, the search for India's next top comedy act. Qyuki will launch Jammin', a show featuring Bollywood composers and YouTube music creators, while veteran web show creators TVF will be launching a search for the next generation of web series creators. In the South, we will also see a Tamil Comedy Hunt with Vision Time, a Telugu Comedy Hunt with ETV, and Katha, a Tamil web series property, later in the year.
The success of homegrown YouTube creators such as All India Bakchod, TVF, as well as the massive following of Indian-Canadian comedian Lilly Singh aka ||Superwoman||, has inspired thousands of young Indian creators to step forward to launch their own channels on YouTube. These aforementioned top creators, as well as some the fastest-growing independent creators in India, took center stage at the YouTube FanFest.
YouTube's growth in India has been massive. While the overall watch time in India has grown by 80% year-over-year, 55% of that watch time was mobile. The number of hours of video content uploaded from India has also increased by 90% YoY. The content uploaded by India's independent creators has risen especially quickly. For instance, watch time of independent musicians grew over 92% YoY; comedy and entertainment grew 100% YoY; and beauty and fashion videos have grown over 138% YoY. Another notable area of watch time growth came from the South, with Tamil and Telugu content seeing a 75% spike in YoY growth.
Satya Raghavan, Head of Entertainment Content at YouTube India, said, "India has undergone a content creator revolution.Over the last few years, Indian YouTube creators have gained millions of new subscribers and have taken over the imagination of the youth in India. In our view 2015 was a breakout year for the young industry and the ecosystem has really evolved in India, with mobile driving massive growth for online video consumption. Now, we're seeing online creators break open the gates for a whole new kind of entertainment for Indians online, with advertisers looking to tap into this space in a meaningful way."
The sucess of these indpendant creators was evident at the Mumbai YouTube FanFest which saw people come from all over the country to see the creators.
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