Google-owned YouTube has emerged as the preferred choice in the country and four out of five Internet users in India use the platform for watching content online, the company has announced. This comes amidst a surge in digital video services. While millions of viewers watch YouTube on their Connected TVs, it has emerged as the fastest-growing screen for YouTube in the past five years.
YouTube Shorts, on the other hand, saw an average of 70 billion daily views globally, as it continues to grow in popularity among viewers in India, with 96 per cent of viewers aged 18 to 44.
“In the fifteen years since we launched YouTube in India, there has been an extraordinary all-round digital transformation, in connectivity and in content, and today, people have created a boundaryless viewer experience for themselves that straddles across their smartphones and their connected TVs. We’re delighted that, in this rapidly evolving landscape, YouTube is the platform of choice for four out of every five people online," Satya Raghavan, Director, Marketing Partners, Google India, said in a statement.
"Marketers have responded to this heterogeneity by tapping into YouTube’s unique environment to reach their consumers at the right time, in their preferred language, in the right need state, on the right device, with the right creative, and with their most appropriate products. Our AI-powered ads solutions that span the spectrum of creation, customization, and deployment will position businesses at the most rewarding intersection of media, creative, technology and content that only YouTube offers, and help brands achieve their business objectives with the advantage of incrementality.”
Meanwhile, the total hours of content uploaded to YouTube by channels grew by over 40 per cent in June 2023 vs June last year. More than 35 adults averaged over 70 minutes of YouTube per day in this month.
Watch times of videos on the "grwm" or "get ready with me" trend grew more than 500 per cent in the last quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year, and with "episode highlights" or "season recap" in the title by 120 per cent. As creators begin to tap gen AI for new ideas and audiences, the year has seen over 1.7 billion views of videos related to or using generative AI tools globally.
Seventy per cent of 18-44 year-old viewers online agree that they are open to watching content from creators that use AI to generate their content.