YouTube sees surge in subscriber base, views due to Covid-19 lockdown

With India under lockdown due to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Google-owned YouTube has seen a 20.5 per cent surge in subscribers' base in the country, a news report said on Tuesday.

YouTube garnered over 300 billion views in the first quarter of this year - 13 per cent more than the fourth quarter of 2019 and 11 per cent more than Q1 2019, according to the report by Mindshare India and online video intelligence and analytics platform Vidooly.

The companies studied YouTube, Facebook and Instagram video platforms.

The findings showcased a steep increase in content consumption as it reported the time spent by the average user to be over four hours per day as compared to previous -- 1.5 hours on social media platforms.

According to the study, Covid-19 related content has seen a surge of 98 per cent in terms of views and 19 per cent in terms of engagement.

In order to garner better engagement, brands are indulging into thorough marketing through Facebook and Instagram and the Indian government's efforts in spreading awareness has gained mileage over YouTube, said the report.

"The worldwide lockdown has resulted in significant shifts in audience behaviour, specifically in terms of online content consumption. In such a scenario, retention rate and watch time of videos will be the key metrics to filter and identify the best performing channels," Subrat Kar, CEO, Co-founder Vidooly, said in a statement.

The report revealed that the millennials remain the most active group on YouTube in India, with 70 per cent of viewership coming from the age group 18-34.

Over 90 per cent of the views on YouTube were through mobile devices.

Recently, over-the-top platform Netflix made several of its documentaries and shows freely available on its YouTube channel.

The free content has educational resources available, which can be used by both students and teachers, said Netflix in a statement, adding the company will be doing Q&As with some of the creators behind the projects so that students can hear from them first-hand.

To help students and teachers during lockdown, Google India recently launched 'YouTube Learning Destination'. It helps student, teachers and parents find useful and high-quality learning content created by education-focused creators on YouTube.

It features content in English and Hindi, with Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi and other Indian languages are coming soon, the company said in a blog post.

"To help ease the transition to remote learning during this situation, we have also rolled out free access to the premium features of Google Meet, to extend enterprise-grade video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for education customers, globally, until September, which enables up to 250 participants in a single video conference," said Bani Dhawan Head of Education, India and South Asia, Google.

Google India has released children's books from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Chota Bheem on their reading app Bolo to help kids understand the safety measures to be taken during this Covid-19 outbreak.