₹21,000 crore: The amount YouTube paid Indian content creators in last 3 years, says CEO Neal Mohan
Speaking at the WAVES Summit in Mumbai, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan unveiled the platform’s big vision for India. Check details here.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, at the inaugural World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai, revealed major facts and figures about the Indian creator economy.

Neal mentioned that YouTubers in India uploaded a significant amount of content, with over 100 million channels uploading in the past year alone. Among these, 15,000 creators surpassed the milestone of accumulating a whopping one million subscribers. In doing so, YouTube paid out over ₹21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years.
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YouTube’s Big Investment Plan For India
Neal Mohan also commented on plans to further invest in the Indian creator economy, announcing a commitment of ₹850 crore over the next two years. This investment will be specifically aimed at boosting India’s creator economy.
This comes after Indian content attracted 45 billion hours of watch time from viewers outside of India.
Neal Mohan, CEO at YouTube, said, “YouTube's ability to connect a creator anywhere with audiences everywhere has made it a powerful engine of cultural export, and few nations have leveraged this as effectively as India. Today, India isn't just a world leader for film and music – it's rapidly becoming what I'm excited to call a “Creator Nation.”
YouTube Recently Completed 20 Years
YouTube recently turned 20 years old. It all began with a video titled ‘Me at the zoo’, a 19-second clip showing a man documenting his experience in front of elephants at a zoo.
To celebrate this milestone, the video giant is rolling out a host of new features, including personalized radio stations via Ask Music and faster playback options reaching up to 4x speed (with speeds more than 2x now available for mobile Premium users). Additionally, YouTube TV users will soon be able to create their own multiview experiences, starting with non-sports content for select channels.
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