iWorld
Youtube cashes in big as ads and subs push revenue past Rs 4,980,000 crore
MUMBAI: When clicks turn into crores, the play button starts to look like a cash register. Youtube crossed Rs 4,980,000 crore in total revenue in 2025, underscoring how advertising, subscriptions and short-form video have turned Google’s video arm into a business that now out-earns many global media giants.
The milestone was confirmed by Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet, during the company’s earnings call on February 4. The figure includes revenue from YouTube advertising as well as subscriptions such as Youtube Premium, Music Premium and Youtube TV. By comparison, streaming rival Netflix reported revenue of about Rs 3,750,000 crore for 2025.
While Google does not regularly disclose Youtube’s total revenue, the scale of growth is hard to miss. Advertising revenue from Youtube rose 8.7 per cent year on year to Rs 94,000 crore in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with Rs 86,000 crore in the same period a year earlier. Subscription revenue is reported under Google’s broader subscriptions, platforms and devices segment, which also includes Pixel devices and Google Play. That segment posted Rs 112,000 crore in revenue in the December quarter, up 17.2 per cent from Rs 96,000 crore a year ago.
Pichai said subscription growth on Youtube remains strong, led by Youtube Music Premium, and hinted at fresh ways to widen the funnel. New Youtube TV plans are in the works, with more than ten genre-specific packages aimed at giving viewers greater choice and flexibility. Youtube TV is currently available only in the United States.
Globally, Google now has 325 million paid subscriptions across its consumer services, driven largely by Youtube Premium and Google One. Youtube alone had crossed 125 million subscribers across Music and Premium by March 2025. To keep momentum going, the platform has been experimenting with lower-priced and shared plans. In India, Youtube Premium starts at Rs 89 per month for students, Rs 149 for individuals and Rs 299 for families, while Music Premium plans begin at Rs 59. Prices across tiers were raised by 12 to 58 per cent in August 2024.
Short-form video is also paying off. Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said Youtube Shorts now averages over 200 billion daily views and is generating more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream ads in several markets, including the United States.
Artificial intelligence is becoming another growth lever. More than one million channels used Youtube’s new AI-powered creation tools in a single month, while over 20 million viewers tapped the Gemini-powered Ask feature to learn more about what they were watching. With AI tools expanding and subscriptions scaling, Youtube’s odds-on bet is clear: keep creators centre stage, and let the numbers roll.
iWorld
Talk to your telly: JioHotstar’s new AI voice feature reads your mood to suggest shows
The streaming giant ditches the scroll for a “conversational” AI that understands moods, cricket and Hinglish
MUMBAI: The era of the endless scroll may finally be over. JioHotstar has officially flicked the switch on its “Conversational Voice Discovery” (CVD) feature, a high-tech overhaul designed to turn the hunt for a Friday night film into a natural chat. Developed in a landmark partnership with OpenAI, the tool moves beyond clunky keyword searches, allowing users to find content by describing their mood, context or even the most bizarre viewing scenarios.
The feature is vision of Uday Shankar, vice chairman of JioStar, whose goal is to eliminate “content overload” by replacing the tedious, traditional scroll with natural dialogue. By leveraging ChatGPT’s ability to grasp context and cultural nuance, the new mobile interface allows users to bypass menus entirely, turning search into a seamless conversation.
The launch, which rolled out across India this month, sees a ChatGPT-powered interface integrated directly into the heart of the app. Instead of typing “action movie” into a sterile search bar, viewers can now speak to their devices as if they were asking a well-read friend for a tip. For now, the feature is exclusive to the mobile app, with a rollout for Connected TV (CTV) expected in later phases.
Beyond the keyword
The CVD feature is built on what JioStar calls “Multilingual Cognitive Search.” It is designed to interpret nuance rather than just matching text. If you tell the app, “I’ve had a long day, give me something mindless and funny,” it won’t just look for those words in a title; it will sift through 300,000 hours of library content to find a light-hearted sitcom or a stand-up special that fits the vibe.
The tech is natively multilingual, catering to India’s diverse linguistic landscape. Users can switch effortlessly between languages—asking for “Koi light-hearted comedy dikhao” (show me some light-hearted comedy) or requesting a “Thriller hai but zyada dark nahi chahiye” (a thriller that isn’t too dark).
Real-time curiosity and live sports
Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the rollout is its integration with live sports. During a high-stakes cricket match, the AI acts as a digital companion. Fans can ask, “Who is the top scorer right now?” or “Show me that last wicket again,” and the system will pull the relevant data or clips instantly. It even attempts to explain the “why” behind the crowd’s energy, responding to prompts like, “Why is everyone reacting like that?” by contextualizing on-field events.
A shift in streaming strategy
The move is part of a broader reimagining of the entertainment experience following the massive merger between JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Uday Shankar noted that the goal is to make premium entertainment “truly accessible” by embedding AI at the core of the user journey. By anticipating culture and context, the platform hopes to kill off “decision fatigue.”
For OpenAI, the partnership represents a major play in the Indian market. Fidji Simo, the head of applications at OpenAI, said the goal was to turn a “one-way” passive consumption experience into a “deeply personal conversation.”
As the feature goes live for millions of subscribers, the message from Bombay House is clear: the remote control is becoming obsolete. Whether you’re looking for a show that “feels like a rainy Sunday afternoon” or a crime series with a “strong female lead but not too violent,” all you have to do is ask.
