YouTube paid Rs 21,000 crore to Indian creators in last three years; CEO Neal Mohan revealed at WAVES 2025

The entertainment event World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, hosted by the government of India has started yesterday at Jio World Convention Centre, BKC, Mumbai. The event will go on for four days, May 1- May 4.

At this event, many well-known celebrity faces will be seen. At the inaugural day of WAVES 2025, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan delivered his keynote speech in which he revealed that YouTube has paid Rs 21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists, and media companies in the last 3 years alone.

At a session on ‘Powering the Creator Economy in India’, the CEO said, “In the next two years, YouTube will invest over Rs 850 crore to accelerate the growth of Indian creators, artists, and media companies. And these aren’t just numbers, they are a tangible impact, forging countless career and business pathways for a vibrant new India.”

It was revealed that over 100 million channels from the country uploaded content onto YouTube in the last year, with more than 15,000 of those channels having over 1 million subscribers. The CEO also talked about the remarkable digital presence of PM Narendra Modi. With over 25 million subscribers on YouTube, the Prime Minister has the largest YouTube following of any head of government in the world.

Last year, content produced on the platform in India racked up 45 billion hours of watch time from viewers outside of the country. And now this investment of Rs 850 crore over the next two years will be aimed at boosting India’s creator economy.