It truly is a privilege to be here with all of you at the inaugural Wave Summit. I'm really honored to be part of this incredible and really unprecedented collection of Indian business leaders, entertainers, producers, actors, directors, and contributors to Indian culture from all over the country. I want to offer my profound thanks to the honorable prime minister, honorable minister Vashna, Chief Minister Fadnavis, and everybody who worked so hard to pull off this amazing event. The prime minister's visionary leadership has made India a beacon for creators all over the world, and it's really evidenced by his own remarkable digital presence. With over 25 million subscribers on YouTube, the prime minister has the largest YouTube following of any head of government in the world. And his vision extends to this one-of-a-kind event that brings together India's rich cultural heritage, entrepreneurial spirit, and true global leadership.
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. In India, over 100 million channels have uploaded content onto YouTube in the last year. Yeah, you can clap. And more than 15,000 of those channels have over 1 million subscribers. That's up from 11,000 channels just a few months ago. And YouTube has enabled these creators and countless more to not only share their passion with the world, but also build loyal fandoms and successful businesses. In the last three years alone, we've paid more than 21,000 crores to creators, artists, and media companies all across India.
Just a few days ago on April 23rd, we marked the 20th anniversary of the first video ever uploaded to YouTube. It's really hard to imagine how much the world and YouTube have changed in those two short decades. What began as a site with grainy, unscripted videos is now a force driving global culture. And I truly mean global. 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. And as amazing as it's been to witness, we're even more excited about India's future as a global powerhouse in entertainment. In the next two years, YouTube will invest over 850 crores to accelerate the growth of Indian creators, artists, and media companies. And these aren't just numbers. They're tangible impact forging countless career and business pathways for a vibrant new India. Indian creators exemplify what is special about YouTube: the ability to share history, culture, and passion with viewers in every corner of the world. Last year, content produced in India racked up 45 billion hours of watch time from viewers outside of the country. But instead of telling you myself, I'm going to invite two creators to come up on stage and share more about how they've grown their YouTube channels and built a truly global fan base. They're going to be interviewed by my colleague Gautaman, who is our vice president of APAC. And so without further ado, please welcome to the stage Gautami Kowal of the channel Slaypoint and educational creator Mark Rober.
Hi everyone. Those are some incredible numbers, right? Just the growth of the creator economy here in India. So big round of applause for what you just heard. All right, I'm honored to be joined here on stage with two incredible creators, Mark Rober and Gotham. And we'll get an opportunity to hear from them. But Gotham, you and I, I think, have been destined to be on stage together. Gotham, you know, how did this not happen before?
Yeah, I think we should make it happen more often and just like make it our thing.
That's always good. So this morning, we heard a lot about the deep and rich tradition of storytelling here in India and the aspiration to grow. Neil talked about 100 million channels in the last year uploaded a video here. The prime minister Modi talked about the aspiration of growing that to a billion voices taking content global. So I'm going to start with a question that actually touches upon that. You know, you guys have fan bases all over the world. What's the most surprising interaction that you have had with a fan? And maybe talk to us about that. Gotham, let's start with you first.
I think there are so many it's hard to pick, but you asked for the most surprising one. I think it's been when I've been in a foreign country where nobody really speaks Hindi and people there like suddenly recognize me and shout my name. And then they told me a story that they actually use our channel to learn Hindi. That was quite interesting to me. And they said that it's because the content was relatable and they cared about the topic that was being presented in the video. So they said it's easier to learn a language while having fun. So they watched the video, found it entertaining, and then they also learned Hindi. This really showed me the power of YouTube, how it bridges people across the country and the world.
Yeah, no, it's great. How about you? So I try and get people excited about science and education. I worked at NASA for a decade. The channel has about 70 million subscribers. So in the United States, I'm used to getting stopped, but two weeks ago, I was in Japan and we were in line getting some sushi. And then one person came up and asked for a picture. And then when that happens, two people, and soon it was like eight people. And then this adorable old Japanese woman looked at me and she's like, 'Who are you?' And then I was like, 'Oh, I'm a YouTuber.' And then she's like, 'Oh, I want a picture then.'
No, two things resonated with me. One, obviously, the deep connection that you all end up making with your fans. And that's something that we hear from all of our creators: what differentiates YouTube really is that connection which may not necessarily happen as you're scrolling videos on a social media platform. So that's one. And then just your travel story connecting people from different cultures. Content is obviously traveling across boundaries now, and we see that each and every day. All right, Gotham, next question for you. You've been on YouTube for a decade now, 10 years or so, and you launched your channel at a time when digital content was still emerging in India, so early days. How has your experience as a creator changed? I mean, 10 years is a very long journey. You're still doing what you love, but it must have changed from when you started to now.
Yeah, it's definitely changed, but it's been a really wonderful journey. When I started with Abu back in 2016, there were not many duo channels. In fact, there were not many YouTubers from India yet. The Indian creator ecosystem was really small, and now it is absolutely massive. We have people from the smallest of cities and towns. There's so much internet access. Even people across all age groups, everyone has their own niche. Before, I felt there was not enough space for all kinds of content to grow. But now I feel like the platform and ecosystem is big enough that everybody can have their own little niche or a voice of their own. And there's a huge population that's just hungry to be entertained. And that is definitely different. Even the launch of YouTube Shorts has definitely helped a lot of people grow and new voices to come forward.
Did you just call yourself an OG creator? Did I hear you say that? Okay, your content — let's talk a little bit about that. It centers around Indian pop culture, which is increasingly finding a global audience and becoming popular. It's not just Bollywood and Indian food and cooking, but so much more. I just did a panel where we talked about chess and even farming channels from India that are getting so much popularity. How do you see your content contributing to the global understanding and appreciation of Indian culture?
So all of our videos center around Indian pop culture, like you said. That is one thing that we really want to introduce to the world in our own voice and our own authentic style. And our second most important thing that we want to achieve is to promote tourism and travel, especially Indian, through our channel. Our vlogs do really well, around 20 million views like every single vlog kind of pulls that off. So I really want to show India in a great light and take it global in that sense.
