‘Not just entertainment, YouTube a learning tool’
Chennai: For
every Rajinikanth movie trailer or song compilation that Indians look for on
YouTube, there is an educative video being watched. From Sreekanth K, a porter
in Ernakulam who cracked Kerala Public Service Commission exam to Awmit Bhadana
from rural UP, who has around 16 million subscribers, and Masthanamma, the
oldest video creator in the world from Andhra Pradesh who died last year,
YouTube is helping people get more value from the internet. In an interview,
Ajay Vidyasagar, regional director, Asia Pacific, YouTube, shares his thoughts
on the emerging trends.
Q: Is YouTube
the new Google, since people use it to search info and videos?
The two platforms serve different purposes. Google is a search platform and provides users a gamut of offerings as text among others. YouTube is a native video platform, where people come for the magic of sight, sound and motion. Since everything starts with a search the first port of call will always be Google. Our hierarchy starts with education and information, entertainment and communication. In that hierarchy, these two serve a specific set of roles and that are complimentary to each other.
Q: With growing internet use, what is your take on the Indian market?
India is showing behavioural changes that are not seen elsewhere. For instance, we introduced voice search thinking those using text will also use it, but an entirely new set of users who have never used search began using voice. By 2022, India is expected to have 650-750 million internet users. There is still a lot of scope to improve the reach. YouTube is becoming a learning tool for people with its rich library of content. Video is helping people in a variety of things in terms of education, cooking or fixing a phone. Our commitment is to make the product more local, flexible and fast.
Q: You see
YouTube as a learning platform?
Everybody knows one can get a great comedy video or the newest film trailer of Rajinikanth or Ilaiyaraaja’s song compilations on YouTube. But what we are not understanding is that apart from entertainment the extent and scope of learning. The amazing corpus is helping us to not just entertain, but also inform, educate and uplift people. A railway porter Sreekanth K, who worked in Ernakulam junction in Kerala, thanks to RailNet, could study during his spare time by downloading study material using Google and clear the Kerala State Public Service Commission examination. This is happening in several parts of India. There are women in north India who have worked as house help for 50 years, but suddenly they are using a mobile device to access videos that help them learn embroidery and set up a shop. We are excited about being more helpful and useful.
Q: Is such
content being created on its own or do you drive them?
These are hugely driven. We have a big learning team and a team in India that focuses just on that. India is probably one of the richest places for this kind of content, coming out not only from cities but rural areas as well. Masthanamma, who died last year, was one of our oldest video creators in the world. She became a creator at the age of 104 and was very active on the ‘home cooked food’ channel with more than a million subscribers. That is the diversity we are looking at. When you think of YouTube, you think of movies and TV channels, but it is much broader than that. There are people who are underserved information and we want to reach them.
Q: What are the trends that are emerging, especially with the launch of YouTube Premium?
There is an advertising-based video-on-demand service and subscription-based video service. The difference is the revenue model — one is advertising, the other subscription. In the next three years, among the top 10 markets for people under 25 years, seven of those markets are in South East Asia and South Asia. India is on top of that band. The top five in terms of mobile penetration and bandwidth consumption is also in this part of the world. The reason being these countries have a young demographic. Around 50% of India is below 25 years, while 74% of Vietnam is below 35 years. So, people here have an extraordinary appetite for entertainment and information.
But, for all the
high volumes just a couple of these markets will figure in the top 10 when it
comes to per capita gross domestic product. There is a mismatch between usage
and value. While appetite is high, purchasing power is low. At least for the
next decade you are not going to see a trend where 60% of users opt for
subscription service. Hence, India will remain an advertisement-driven market.
Q: In this day
of video streaming, where does television stand?
For people
above 35 years, television is still relevant. My dad (who is in India) has told
me not to call him between 8pm and 10pm as he is watching TV serials. On the
other hand my daughter has not viewed television may be for eight years. For
youngsters, the primary port of call will be platforms like YouTube. Television
channels are realizing that. By running TV shows on YouTube their numbers have
gone up significantly. The two platforms have become complimentary. It is no
more a television show, it is a show. A video that needs to be watched.
Source | https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Mobile @ 9665911593
No comments:
Post a Comment