"YouTube is a stage where creators can shine"

In an exclusive interview, Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, talks to Managing Editor M.G. Arun about the importance of India in the company's global creative ecosystem. Edited excerpts

- M.G. Arun

Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, loves recounting the story of Biju, a content creator from Kannur, Kerala.

Having lost his job as a bus driver during Covid, Biju decided to create shortform content on his YouTube channel KL BRO Biju Rithvik, giving glimpses of his daily life, in Malayalam, his mother tongue. Soon, his simple, unassuming style of presentation earned him a whole legion of admirers. “Fast forward a couple of years later, and Biju was our largest YouTuber, not just in India, but in all of Asia, and currently has 71 million subscribers,” says Mohan. “What struck me was what this incredibly humble person told me when I met him—‘YouTube has given me a community.’ That was what was most important to him—people commenting on his videos not just from across India, but from all over the world.”

Mohan is extremely proud of what YouTube is helping the Bijus of this world achieve. Born to Indian immigrant parents in the US, Mohan spent eight years as YouTube's chief product officer before becoming its CEO in February 2023. A big fan of YouTube himself, Mohan would during the Covid lockdown watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix his garage. A news and sports junkie, Mohan also has a deep interest in music—genres he regularly explores on YouTube.

And he is excited about India. Some 15,000 YouTubers here boast more than a million subscribers each; in just the past year, 100 million Indian channels uploaded their videos on YouTube. Between 2022 and 2024, the $40 billion Google subsidiary paid Rs 21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists and media companies.