YouTube is now India’s prime-time screen, where internet authenticity meets cinematic quality on the largest canvas in the home, Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, YouTube said at APOS, Asia’s premier summit for the entertainment and technology industry, in Bali.
She highlighted that YouTube has collapsed the distance between different video formats and different entertainment ecosystems, bringing them all onto India’s largest screen. Soni also shared her views on India’s video boom, covering key themes such as creators, commerce, and Connected TV.
According to YouTube, CTV is now YouTube’s fastest-growing screen in India, reaching over 75 million adults (ages 18+). Moreover, audiences are moving effortlessly between Shorts, long-form video, podcasts and live content, with Connected TV becoming a key destination for deeper, shared viewing experiences.
Two key highlights as per YouTube include – Next-Gen Digital IPs: Independent creators have evolved into modern media studios, building structured, premium digital IPs that capture mainstream big-screen attention. Examples: Television veteran Shekhar Suman bringing classic late-night charm directly to digital audiences with Shekhar Tonite; comedian Ashish Solanki successfully scaling a massive lineup of independent comedy IPs natively on the platform.
The Rise of Vodcasts (Video Podcasts): Uniquely popular on CTV, video podcasts turn passive listening into an active, lean-back viewing event for the entire living room as audiences seek out the chemistry and physical setting of the conversation.
At APOS 2026, Soni said, “We are scaling our CTV presence by connecting a fluid multi-format viewer journey with a completely diversified slate of premium content.”
“The Content-to-Commerce Flywheel is already taking off in a big way in India. Our unique approach relies on turbocharging the existing user needs and their trust in creators’ recommendations. A whopping 200 million logged in users searched for shopping content on YouTube last year,” she added.
Furthermore, Soni went on to say that India’s creative economy has matured into a vital macroeconomic pillar that drives national GDP while actively reshaping global pop culture in real time.
“Fueling domestic economic mobility – by investing and growing the creator economy and scaling global export power both matter equally to YouTube. India represents the blueprint for how a digital creator economy achieves institutional scale,” she said.
Soni emphasised, “YouTube has always been an indispensable, collaborative growth partner for our media and entertainment partners. The shift of audiences toward Connected TV and the deepening fandom on YouTube is a massive opportunity to expand the entire commercial pie and give premium entertainment content a highly profitable, multi-layered lifecycle.”
Furthermore, she highlighted that their approach to helping the Media & Entertainment ecosystem scale on the big screen is built around three operational levers: The 360-degree promotional flywheel, revenue diversification and expanding distribution, and format modernisation.
“YouTube owns the high-intent sports conversation 365 days a year, much before the match begins and long after the final whistle blows. YouTube is at the epicenter of sports and pop culture, and our unique value lies in being the absolute “infinite stadium” for fandom. We achieve this by connecting deep, creator-led storytelling with official global partnerships to capture every layer of fan passion. This continuous curiosity loop has driven a massive surge in views on creator-led cricket content on YouTube exploding to 190 billion last year,” she stated.
As per the platform, YouTube is now the primary destination for product research in India, with over 200 million logged-in users actively searching for shopping content on the platform.
As much as 85% of surveyed viewers in India explicitly trust the product opinions of YouTube creators over legacy advertising, and 88% say the platform is important for product research and final decision-making.
According to YouTube, furthermore, 96% of shoppers are likely to use a product again if YouTube was part of their initial purchase journey, largely driven by creators solving hyper-local problems. Shopping-related watch time exploded by over 250% Year-over-Year, while the total share of YouTube Shorts featuring shopping tags grew 6X.
Also, currently, over 40% of eligible Indian creators are enrolled in the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program.
