Alphabet Inc’s new video app for India, Youtube Go is finally open for all to download. As we’d written earlier, this is an ambitious project by Youtube to reimagine Youtube for Indian users.
The company had announced Youtube Go earlier in September at an event in Delhi. Initially, the app was available to a closed set of users.
The app will have features like trending and popular videos in your area, video previews to save data, ability to stream in different resolutions and to share videos with friends nearby.
“We’ll also be holding several activities in Udaipur over the upcoming weeks to glean more insights from users on the ground,” Jay Akkad, Product Manager, YouTube, wrote on his blog.
In November, Google had also launched Youtube Kids in India (we got a nine-year-old to review the app).
With the launch of Reliance Jio, data has become cheaper in India and video consumption has sky rocketed. In February, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said that India has become top country in mobile data usage with Jio users consuming more than 100 crore gigabytes (GB) every month.
Streaming services like Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video have also placed their bets in the Indian market, though it is still early days. India’s online video industry is expected to grow at a compound rate of 40% annually between 2016 and 2021, and generate about $1.2 billion (nearly Rs 8,000 crore) in revenues, according to Media Partners Asia, a media advisory and consulting firm.
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