Google-owned video platform YouTube is witnessing a growing number of content creators and viewers in vernacular languages including Hindi, Tamil and Bengali in smaller cities and towns. According to YouTube Head of Family and Learning Partnerships Don Anderson, Indian users use YouTube to learn a range of things - right from "how to tie a tie" to learning farming techniques, among others. Anderson said that there are hundreds of education and learning channels on YouTube in India that with over one lakh subscribers. He also added YouTube is emerging as "the largest supplementary learning platform" for users across India. Meanwhile, learning videos generate hundreds of millions of views on YouTube every single day, Anderson said.

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Anderson said that previously, the content was primarily in English. However, it started to change after Internet connectivity expanded across the country. It also gave a significant boost to the amount of videos is being created in vernacular languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam. He also said that there is a strong demand for content across different topics in local Indian languages like government and public service entrance exams, English language tutorials, content on science and maths, and even around content topics like farming, photography, music and dance, cricket, and financial literacy.

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Anderson provided an example of 'wifi study' that live streams upto 30 videos a day with live Q&A. Wifi study has crossed nine million subscribers this year. Another YouTuber Sandeep Singh Dhillon was inspired by 'Darshan-Farming Leader' YouTube channel and started creating content around goat farming. Currently, Dhillon has over 44,000 subscribers and is helping other farmers on newer breeding methods, goat rearing and animal health.

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"About a year ago, there were 12 learning channels in India that had over one million subscribers, that number has now grown to over 70 channels. These 70 channels have 142 million subscribers and one billion views between them," Anderson said. India's Internet user base is now spread well beyond metros and this is reflected in the content on the platform. Both content creators and viewers are coming in large numbers from tier II, III cities and even small towns. We are now actively investing in accelerating the growth of learning content on YouTube through mentorship for our creators across languages, and funds for them to develop high quality content on a wide variety of topics."