Mumbai: Google-owned YouTube on Tuesday announced that India was its largest and fastest growing audience in the world with more than 265 million monthly active users.
"India is now both our biggest audience and one of our fastest growing audiences in the world. YouTube today has become the first stop for users to consume content, whether they're looking for entertainment or information," said Susan Wojcicki, YouTube's CEO, at the company's annual flagship event "Brandcast" here.
In the past one year, YouTube's consumption on mobile has increased to 85 per cent -- with 60 per cent of the watch time coming from outside of the six largest metros in the country.
YouTube creators have become effective storytellers, with more than 1,200 Indian creators crossing the one million subscriber-milestone.
"Just five years ago, there were only two creators with a million subscribers on the platform," said Wojcicki.
Online music streaming app YouTube Music has also hit three million downloads within a week of its launch in India.
Wojcicki noted that by 2020, it is expected that 500 million Internet users in India will consume online video both for entertainment, sharing and learning.
"User behaviour has shifted massively to mobile video and therein lies the opportunity for marketers today. With the growth of YouTube in India, it is an amazing time to be a marketer as you can do full-funnel growth, creative storytelling and cross-channel planning easily," said Mark Patterson, CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific.