Youtube to double down investment in education section, plans standalone app soon

Google’s subsidiary and world’s largest online video community platform YouTube is planning to make a huge investment in learning and education content.

The video marketplace is building a big team for the same in Mumbai, said a Factor Daily report quoting a person who was part of the company in-house meet. It also plans to put out ‘sponsor’ buttons to a wider set of creators on its platform. So, viewers can pay them directly.

YouTube has witnessed tremendous growth in education, learning, and do it yourself content. At the same time, with rising demand for upskill centric content from aspirational users, said another source in the report adding Youtube plans to launch a standalone app for the same.

It is also thinking to sponsor a select few content creators. Presently, YouTube has standalone applications like YouTube Kids and YouTube Go.

Besides, it is testing the sponsor button. The feature will be rolled out to content creators on the platform. There are 135 creators on YouTube with over ten lakh subscribers each in India.

YouTube’s chief business officer Robert Kyncl in an interview to AIB talked about launching sponsorship. Youtube is working on bringing sponsorship to India and that one of the product managers in charge of it is coming to India soon, he added.

In India, Youtube was launched in 2008. It had only 50 million Internet users then. In February, it claimed to have reached 225 million mark. Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India had claimed that YouTube reaches 85 per cent of the engaged Internet users in the 18 years and above age-group.

Internet user base in India is expanding at a fast pace. By 2020, India will have 650 million Internet users. At a current growth rate, over 500 million Internet users will consume video content in the country.

Notably, video consumption has taken off in the country in a big way after the launch of Jio in 2016.

Now, India is a more engaged market compared with the rest of the world for YouTube, where more than 65 percent of the viewers subscribe to channels. Interestingly, close to 60 percent of the viewership is clocked by non-metros.

Besides, 90 percent of all video consumption happens in local languages, according to Google.

Meanwhile, India’s digital video advertising market is likely to grow about 35 per cent from last year to touch Rs 2,200 crore this year, according to a report by Vidooly. About Rs 500-600 crore were spent on YouTube. Seven out of 10 viewers watch ads with the audio turned on. The ad viewability on Youtube is about 95 per cent.