Let’s be honest; since the advent of Jio, YouTube has become our favourite go-to application for most of over 500 million internet users in India. All the content on YouTube is available free of cost, unlike Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime. This is what that make millions of internet users love YouTube – which might not remain the case anymore.
Google-owned YouTube is all set to allure new customers to try its paid subscription service, which can be rolled out very soon. The video content sharing platform has started gearing to launch its original video streaming service in India – ‘YouTube Originals’. Apart from India, the service will be launched in many international markets including Japan, Germany, Mexico and France.
YouTube Originals will come in the form of multiple genres such as music documentaries, reality series, talk shows and scripted series.
YouTube Originals in India
YouTube has a lot in store for the users upgrading to its premium services. The program is expected to contain content in multiple genres – from music documentaries to reality series to talk shows, YouTube is equipped to roll out a lot of new programs, as said by Susanne Daniels who is YouTube’s global head of original programming. Keeping in mind the multilinguistic nature of our diverse country, the content will be produced in local languages – and will be dubbed or provided with subtitles for other markets.
However, YouTube knows where its major user base comes from – and hence has decided to offer only select content for Premium subscribers. Hence, not all the original content would be for its paid subscribers, unlike a lot of its rivals such as Amazon Prime and Netflix. The remaining programs will be streamed on the platform for no charge, albeit with advertisements. The monthly subscription service of YouTube was previously called “YouTube Red.”
YouTube To Make Amazon, Netflix Run For Its Money
Other video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are yielding a lot of profit through their paid subscription programs and their shows are garnering enough of attention. Following the trend, YouTube is strengthening the foundation by building a strong viewer base for YouTube premium services in India. It is intending to aim at the hot markets, where the video platform is already in a strong position. YouTube has over 225 million monthly users in India, and the country surely counts in one of the most substantial markets for the Google-owned video streaming platform.
YouTube has prevailed in India for almost more than a decade now, whereas Amazon Prime and Netflix are relatively new entrants. The Premium services would be new in the country, but with good content and reasonable pricing, YouTube is expected to woo its Indian user base with its resources.
Will YouTube Succeed in its Expedition?
The statistics of the Indian streaming market have escalated exponentially since the launch of Reliance Jio. However, India’s user base relies totally on the free content available online, as per the stats. In a country where 225 million internet users have access to video streaming service, merely one million of them have subscribed to paid services. In such conditions, it would not be an easy sail for YouTube, attempting to make Indian users reach their pocket for premium video content. Besides, the advent of new competitors – such as Alibaba, voot, Hotstar -has made the market more competitive. In the wake of increasing competition attracting the paying customers would not be an easy nut to crack.
YouTube began with its premium services in 2016 and has been experimenting with its content since then. Soon enough, the Indian userbase would also witness the launch of “YouTube Originals”, albeit the time and date are yet to be disclosed by the company.
