Cheap data and affordable smartphones see India overtaking the US in consumption on YouTube

NEW DELHI: India has surpbaded the United States as the world's largest and fastest growing market for YouTube, with extremely low price data rates and a growing population of affordable smartphones pushing consumption video at record levels. The use was guided by content in local languages ​​on topics as diverse as learning and education, music, health and cooking.

In the country, YouTube, the American technology giant, has 26.5 million subscribers in the country, and nearly 95% of this consumption is in local languages, in tier 2 cities and 3, told TOI a manager of the company.

Data tariffs in India are the lowest in the world and have been steadily decreasing since Reliance Jio launched its mobile services in Mukesh Ambani in September 2016. Against more than 100 Rs charged per GB for data there are two or more three years, the same amount today costs less than a tenth of that figure (a GB at a price less than 10 rupees).

"India has now overtaken the United States … With less than 20% of the local population speaking English, online video content in Indian languages ​​is becoming the main driver of the use of the Internet, "said the manager. "Today, 95% of online video consumption is in Indian languages. Level 2 and 3 cities are generating strong growth and regional language content is growing rapidly. "

According to YouTube, mobile consumption has increased to 85%, 60% of the time spent outside the six largest metros.

Internet consumption in India is at its highest level and against a few hundred MB of data consumed until 2016, an average mobile user now consumes up to 10 GB of internet per month .

"The diversity of Indian content on YouTube has never been so good before. With low-cost data, we've seen an increase in content consumption in different sectors, including music, technology, beauty, health, fitness, dance and food, "said YouTube's manager. .

By 2018, content devoted to learning and education has become one of the fastest growing categories on YouTube in India, generating more than a billion views per day on YouTube in the world.

YouTube shared his ideas on the exponential growth of the online video ecosystem at its annual flagship event, Brandcast. "India is now both our biggest audience and one of our fastest growing audiences in the world. Today, YouTube has become the first step for users who want to use content, whether they are looking for entertainment or information, "said YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.