Last year, YouTube completed its 10th year in India crossing more than 225 million monthly active users. In the 10 years of its existence, Google owned video platform has penetrated 80 percent of India’s internet universe. In different categories of channels – music, entertainment and politics still hold the top most watched channels. Since 2008, the market of YouTube content has been changed drastically. According to Rajan Anandan, VP South East Asia, and India, Google, by 2020, India will have 650 million Internet users at current growth rate over 500 million unique users.
We analysed 1000 popular YouTube channels in 18 different categories, including music, entertainment, news & politics, comedy, education, science & technology, etc. Music category has the highest number of subscribers with 340.67 million followed by entertainment and news & politics with 226.17 and 111.94 million subscribers respectively. Whereas gaming, pets and animals and travel & events are the lowest categories with 2.73 million, 4.14 million and 5.01 million subscribers.
With affordable data plans, increasing penetration of smartphones along with a variety of content on YouTube, the video platform now reaches 85 percent of all highly engaged Internet users, in the 18 years and above age group in India. Analyzing further 174 YouTube under ‘Society’ category, which comprise of NGO, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), governmental, politics and educational related channels.
Only 5 organisational YouTube Channels under CSR sub-category have the highest number of subscribers. These organisations are analysed on based on subscribers, number of videos are uploaded and the total number of viewers. Interestingly, two of the philanthropic organisations are Reliance group.
Out of 26 NGOs, spiritual organisations – IRC TV, Isha Foundation, BAPSChannel and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have highest number of subscribers. Bilateral agencies like Save the Children, UNICEF India and British Council India have the highest number of subscribers after religious channels.
| YouTube statistics in India – NGO | |||
| Organisations | Subscribers | Videos uploaded | Total uploaded video views |
| IRC TV | 1475142 | 23241 | 300041024 |
| Isha Foundation | 661651 | 790 | 73160128 |
| BAPSChannel | 157034 | 2771 | 68236545 |
| Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar | 466478 | 1332 | 58139614 |
| Save the Children India | 87322 | 262 | 26641712 |
| UNICEF India | 18378 | 461 | 6636488 |
| British Council India | 57619 | 764 | 3912669 |
| HelpAge India | 8448 | 174 | 1587701 |
| TeachForIndia | 8267 | 179 | 1216930 |
| TERI | 5090 | 975 | 943589 |
| AYUSH Adivasi Yuva Shakti | 2233 | 182 | 657924 |
| Greenpeace India | 2356 | 272 | 545548 |
| SOS Children’s Villages India | 708 | 61 | 515656 |
| JoinHandsForChange | 348 | 37 | 433383 |
| Infosys BPM | 735 | 55 | 266297 |
| Infosys Finacle | 2380 | 131 | 140578 |
| Amnesty International India | 1305 | 163 | 137159 |
| savethechildrenind | 85 | 67 | 26581 |
| Buzz India | 127 | 54 | 25715 |
| WorldVisionIndia | 140 | 3 | 9896 |
| The Story Of | 0 | 20 | 8528 |
| Infosys InStep | 153 | 2 | 7602 |
| Infosys Consulting | 89 | 34 | 6285 |
| Infosys Foundation | 122 | 30 | 5914 |
| KHUSHII NGO | 28 | 3 | 687 |
| SmilingStart | 2 | 3 | 283 |
Similarly, out of 24 channels of political party and people, BJP, Narendra Modi and India National Congress have the highest number of total uploaded video views. There are also YouTube channels like ‘I Support Narendra Modi’, ‘CMO Gujarat’, ‘With Congress’ and ‘Namma Congress’ are also in list of most watched YouTube Channels, even though number of videos are lesser in number than others.
In India, YouTube is seeing incredible growth across all age groups, even amongst 55+ audience our reach stands at over 80%. It represents an incredible opportunity for brands to use that Intent to connect with their audience in a meaningful way and drive significant business results.
