New Delhi, Sep 29 : YouTube’s creator ecosystem contributed Rs 18,000 crore to India’s economy and supported nearly one million full-time equivalent jobs, according to the platform’s 2025 India impact report.
YouTube India Managing Director Gunjan Soni, speaking exclusively to NDTV, said the economic impact of the platform extends beyond the headline figures, with creators increasingly building businesses and employing teams around their content operations.
Soni said creators had evolved from individuals producing videos with basic equipment into entrepreneurs running media businesses.
She cited the example of the YouTube channel “Simple Ghar”, which began in 2022 with a focus on helping households make informed purchasing decisions. The channel initially operated from a converted room but has since expanded to a 35-member team and produces content in more than seven languages, she said.
“This is not a one-off case. This is becoming the norm,” Soni said, underlining the growing role of the creator economy in employment generation.
According to the report, creators and the wider ecosystem supported by YouTube generated nearly one million full-time equivalent jobs. In addition, creators supported around three lakh people through apprenticeships, Soni said.
The report also found that 73 per cent of creators surveyed identified YouTube as their primary source of income.
Soni said the company was focusing on both helping creators produce content and expanding monetisation opportunities as the creator economy develops.
The platform also recorded continued growth in the number of monetised channels. Around two lakh channels were monetised for the first time during the year, highlighting the continued expansion of the creator ecosystem, she said.
At the upper end of the creator economy, the number of creators earning seven-figure incomes increased by 20 per cent year-on-year, Soni said.
She described the growth as an indication that creators are finding new ways to participate in India’s expanding digital and creative economy.
The findings come as online video increasingly becomes a source of employment and entrepreneurship in India, with creators building teams, businesses and multilingual content operations around their channels.
