YouTube CEO Neal Mohan commits ₹850 crore to fuel India’s ‘Creator Nation’ vision

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on Wednesday announced a major investment of ₹850 crore over the next two years to support India’s growing creator economy, as he hailed the country’s emergence as a global hub of digital creativity. Speaking at the first edition of the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai, Mohan said the platform had already paid over ₹21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists, and media companies in the past three years.

“YouTube’s ability to connect a creator anywhere with audiences EVERYWHERE has made it a powerful engine of cultural export, and few nations have leveraged this as effectively as India,” Mohan said in his keynote address. “Today, India isn’t just a world leader for film and music – it’s rapidly becoming what I’m excited to call a ‘Creator Nation.’”

Mohan revealed that more than 100 million Indian channels uploaded content on YouTube over the last year, with 15,000 of them crossing the milestone of one million subscribers. He added that content created in India racked up over 45 billion hours of watch time from international audiences in 2023 alone — a clear sign that Indian creators are capturing global attention.

The ₹850 crore investment, according to Mohan, will be directed toward expanding YouTube’s infrastructure and partnerships in India, as well as training initiatives to help emerging creators professionalise their content and scale their businesses.

The announcement at WAVES comes at a time when India’s creator economy is seeing unprecedented momentum, with local influencers increasingly becoming cultural ambassadors and economic drivers across YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms.

Hosted by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the WAVES summit aims to spotlight India’s media and entertainment industry as a global powerhouse in storytelling, innovation, and digital growth.