At the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (Waves), cine stars Shah Rukh Khan, Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, et al, created a buzz, as expected. But the non-glamorous show stealers at the summit, which saw rousing words on the orange economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were creators such as Akash Jadhav and Mayo Murasaki, who demonstrated how platforms like YouTube have made it possible for anybody to become a star.
Indeed, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who dubbed India as the ‘Creator Nation’ of the world, stated that Indian content racked up 45 billion hours of watch-time outside the country, and the platform had paid ₹21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists and media companies in the last three years. He announced an over ₹850 crore investment towards building the orange economy further, much to the excitement of content creators.
At the event, businessline caught up with Akash Jadhav, who, along with his brother Santosh, runs Indian Farmer, an agricultural channel with a huge following, and Murasaki, a Hindi-speaking Japanese who posts videos on India and Japan, to gauge the impact of the content economy, brand play, monetisation and the advent of AI.
Reaping a rich harvest
Indian Farmer’s YouTube channel, which tackles real-world farming problems, has nearly 5 million subscribers. Jadhav describes how the two brothers from rural Maharashtra started out in 2018 with a vision to “make farming more sustainable, profitable and residue-free”. “My primary motivation is to get clean food on my table,” he says.
Today, across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Indian Farmer has a following of about 10 million farmers globally; only 15-20 per cent are from India, even though the content is in Hindi. As Jadhav says, “Food is something everyone is interested in. It resonates with everyone the world over.”
The huge following has allowed the brothers to monetise their passion project. However, this did not come about easily, says Jadhav, as the two had no one to guide them in their attempt. Over time, they realised that brand collaborations gave the best returns, despite their lack of affiliation with any agency. Jadhav estimates that about 80 per cent of their revenue comes from collaborations with agricultural brands, manufacturing brands, companies working on digital farming, irrigation and, at times, even the government.
“At Indian Farmer, we created a proper commercial deck with fixed pricing, clear deliverables and workflows. This helped us build structure and credibility with brands,” he says.
The rest of the revenue comes from ads like YouTube AdSense and Facebook monetisation. Jadhav, however, foresees a dip in this form of revenue since Facebook has paused its monetisation option.
“Our Facebook page was ‘demonetised’ over two years ago and, despite multiple attempts, we’ve received no resolution from Meta. The bulk of our ad revenue now comes from YouTube, and that has not been much. Structured agri courses were a turning point. A reel may go viral, but a paid course builds depth and predictable revenue,” says Jadhav, adding that the use of AI by platforms like Meta has done little to help his business.
For Murasaki — who came to India as a student and majored in Hindi because her father, a Himalayan climber, loved the country — pushing content on YouTube started as a passion. “I started the channel about India and Japan so that I wouldn’t forget Hindi. I never thought of becoming a big YouTuber. I just followed my passion,” she says.
She is anxious over the advent of AI. “My strength has always been me speaking English and Hindi. Now, with AI, the language barrier will be very low... my advantage may be weakened. I have to be more creative and unique when it comes to content creation. I guess AI could be an advantage and disadvantage at the same time for me,” she says.
Asked whether content creation will offer a viable means of earning in the AI era, both creators are cautiously optimistic. Murasaki says, “Yes, I think it can be a viable job. Of course, a YouTuber is usually not considered a stable job. But I’m learning language and marketing while making content. So I plan to do this as long as I can, maybe not just in YouTube video format.”
Jadhav warns that content creation is a risky business. “You can lose your business overnight, as happened with our Facebook platform. Also, monetisation doesn’t begin with followers but with clarity on value. The real shift for content creators will happen when they think like entrepreneurs, building systems around their content.”