The wide diversity and presence of so many languages in the country have helped YouTube to score big on regional content, which has turned out to be Google’s big bet in India.
World’s largest video platform has claimed a sharp growth in regional viewership over the past 20-24 months. The views have tripled in terms of numbers over the last two years. They have termed content creation in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali and others a very profitable venture.
YouTube India has also been witnessing a surge in Hindi technology channels in the recent months.
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Massive Growth In Watch Time
The growth in the total watch time has seen an exponential rise over regional content. Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam have seen massive growth in watch time, with the other languages like Haryanvi, Marathi, Bengali and following up closely behind. Among the top regional YouTube channels in the country, an average channel earns around $3,000 to $4,000 a month from its sponsors and advertisers.
Target Marketing And Revenue Generation
YouTube does share a big part of the revenue, which is getting generated, with the regional content creators and viewers. Brands have realised how they can reach out to consumers in the different pockets of the country by partnering with these regional content creators. Making ads in local languages, and placing them at the right places can help them hit the right notes with regional language viewers.
Regional Studios
YouTube has been working with such regional studios since 2011 to help them with wider distribution and farther reach for their content. Humour content creators like TVF and AIB found stardom on YouTube and made waves on internet back in 2012-2013. Mostly based on mix of Hindi and English, it proved to be a turning point where they turned popular in the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
This inspired content creators in South India and many started creating content in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and so on. This worked as a chain reaction into other languages like Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Haryanvi and others.
40% Viewers Are From Outside India
The Indian language content on YouTube India is doubling every year. The global audience, have seen a rise too, as there is a 40% base of subscribers outside the country. The Punjabi content is a huge hit among the Indian diaspora living in the US, the UK and Canada, while the south Indian language content is very popular in the Middle East.
The ‘Web Series’ Magic
Currently, YouTube India has over 100 web series live, where South India contributes around 40% of it. Not only entertainment, channels with other genre of content has tasted success too. Music, technology, vlogs and food have started making a big mark since last year. Last year, over 500 content creators in India have surpassed the 1,00,000 subscribers mark. That is at least one channel crossing this threshold margin every day.
Regional Content Is The Future
YouTube India has been studying what kind of content will work in the regional languages. Lately, a lot of popular Marathi content is in the form of web series has come up, whereas in Punjabi, the preference has stayed in for music. In case of Bengali and Malayali audiences, it has been the movies.
YouTube has seen growth in fashion, wellness, nutrition, education, gaming, do-it-yourself and children’s content too! Soon these genres will bridge up the gap with the regional entertainment content.
Regional content is the future!