Men prefer to consume animated videos on YouTube when it comes to explainers, news and concept-based content, according to an analysis of YouTube viewership patterns by a news channel on the platform.

The channel, Bisbo, shared this insight based on the spike in viewership as seen during the nation-wide lockdown.

The locked-in audience has migrated to digital media, seeking news, entertainment and distraction. Currently, in India has 531 million subscribers across 35 OTT channels, alongside a substantial increase in user base for social media, online and mobile games.

YouTube is also benefiting from this - with 265 million active users consuming the ever-increasing library of videos. Bisbo, a YouTube channel for animated news explainers and videos in several Indian languages, also saw this surge among its audience, it said in a statement.

"In the last two months, the viewership for our channel has nearly doubled. We have risen from a watch time of 25 million minutes per month to 50 million. We will reach 60-75 million minutes if the lockdown continues till the end of May,” said Shakir Ebrahim, Founder of Bisbo.

This surge translates to subscribers too - from 50,000 new subscribers per month to 150,000 subscribers by the month-end.

"Our most-watched content has included stories on the Ambanis, Tatas, Ranbaxy and the Carlos Ghosn saga. Dramatic news videos on Jammu and Kashmir operative Davinder Singh and Princess Haya's escape are another genre catching their attention,” he added.

Typically, they demand all kinds of news, especially news that mainstream media covers for a bit and then discards as new stories catch their attention.

About 90 per cent of Bisbo India's viewers are men in the 18-44 years age group. The English content channel has 75 per cent views from India, while for the Hindi channel it is 94 per cent. About 85 per cent of all Bisbo’s users consume these videos on their mobile devices, a huge majority on Android.

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