In a latest development on December 19, Video sharing company, YouTube announced that it would allow qualified creators in India to provide free and paid courses to consumers with the start of new year.
Launch Of Tree and Paid Courses In YouTube
The latest move from YouTube pits it directly against domestic edtech companies such as Byju’s, Unacademy, and PhysicsWallah, many more which began on the Google-owned platform.
Notably, it’s not happening for the first time as the educational content has been available on YouTube for several years.
But, this new facility will allow creators to provide viewers with a more comprehensive, structured learning experience.
It would be more beneficial to the creators as they will receive a new monetization option in addition to advertising, channel memberships, and subscriptions.
Not only that, the creators will also be able to provide viewers with supplemental materials including documents, images, and PDFs via the YouTube app.
What About Revenue?
While talking about the revenue sharing, India Director for YouTube, Ishan John Chatterjee said the platform will share revenue with the “same kind of principles” that they have with other creators with a majority of the revenue paid out to the creator.
So far, the exact percentage is not disclosed as yet.
Traditionally, YouTube has paid out 55 percent of its ad revenue to creators while keeping the remainder as part of its partner programme.
Beta Phase Roll Out
The coming months will witness the rolling out of this service initially in beta phase with the creators like LearnoHub, Speak English With Aishwarya, and Telusko covering a variety of academic and vocational subjects in multiple Indian languages.
Further, Chatterjee said,”Learning has always been a huge priority for YouTube. We are already the world’s largest platform for learning and skilling content around the world,” during a media roundtable with reporters.
Adding, “There are 60 million videos already in India that are focused on learning and skilling content,”.
In its beta phase of the service, YouTube plans to focus on three broad areas including digital skills (such as coding languages), professional and entrepreneurial skills (how to start a business, how to do an interview well), and personal passions (Photography).
In coming times, the video sharing firm intends to gradually expand these areas after soliciting feedback from both creators and viewers.
The YouTube creator, LearnoHub, Roshni Mukherjee expressed, “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.”
Interestingly, this launch comes at a time when demand for Indian edtech firms is slowing with the reopening of schools, colleges, and physical tuition centers hence driving students back to traditional offline learning modes.
