At the inaugural WAVES 2025 summit in Mumbai, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced a major investment of ₹850 crore to support Indian creators, artists, and media companies over the next two years. This move reinforces YouTube’s commitment to nurturing India’s fast-growing digital content ecosystem.
Highlighting India’s rising global influence in entertainment, Mohan called the country a “creator nation,” noting that more than 100 million Indian channels uploaded content to YouTube in the past year alone. Over 15,000 of these now have more than 100 million subscribers, illustrating the rapid growth of India’s creator economy.
In the last three years, YouTube has paid out over ₹21,000 crore to Indian creators, musicians, and media organizations – demonstrating the platform’s impact in turning creativity into viable businesses. Mohan emphasized that this support opens up real opportunities for the next generation of creative entrepreneurs.
India’s global cultural footprint is also expanding, with concerts produced in the country generating 45 billion hours of watch time from international viewers in just the past year.
Reflecting on YouTube’s 20-year journey since its first video upload, Mohan said the platform has evolved into a major driver of global culture. He praised India’s leadership in digital innovation and highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong YouTube presence – boasting the highest number of subscribers among all world leaders.
With this investment, YouTube aims to further accelerate India’s emergence as a global hub for digital creativity and content.
