Youtube to Invest in Commerce And Shopping to Boost India's Creator Economy

YouTube is heightening its commitment to India's booming creator economy by emphasizing growth in its commerce and shopping tools as part of a wider agenda to connect more deeply with Indian creators through training, support initiatives, and extensive investment.

"Have also introduced commerce and shopping here. We are looking to scale that part of our business because it is emerging as a really important source of revenue for creators," said Gautam Anand, Vice President and Managing Director for Asia Pacific at YouTube, at the WAVES Summit 2025.

As part of this effort, YouTube has committed to investing Rs 850 crore in the next two years to support the creator ecosystem in India. "We have various ongoing creator programs that are aimed at not just helping new creators join our platform and succeed but also help our current creators scale their businesses," Anand said.

He spoke of YouTube's well-established Partner Program in India, which has made it possible for creators to earn money from their content over several years. In the past three years alone, YouTube has paid out Rs 21,000 crore to Indian creators, testifying to the platform's scale and growing financial potential.

The above statistics testify to YouTube's large reach and popularity, with more than 100 million channels having uploaded videos on the site over the course of the previous year.

By adding commerce tools, training programs, and direct monetization, YouTube hopes to appeal to new creators as well as provide a sustainable growth trajectory for existing ones.