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YouTube income: Need to be more serious

By Sohail Khan 18 September 2026, 9:49 am

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Business News›Industry›Media/Entertainment›Media›YouTube Income: India's creator economy needs to be more serious after new monetisation criteria

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YouTube Income: India's creator economy needs to be more serious after new monetisation criteria
Synopsis

YouTube’s new Partner Programme eligibility norms are set to reshape India’s creator economy, raising the bar for monetisation and rewarding serious creators. The shift could boost original and long-form content, deepen audience engagement, professionalise creator careers and push brands towards niche influencers. With non-YPP income already dominating creator earnings, brand deals could become increasingly crucial.

YouTube’s tougher YPP rules could reshape India’s creator economy and monetisation

A major overhauling is underway in India’s creator economy following YouTube’s new eligibility norms for its partner programme, a key revenue stream for creators.

The latest criteria for YouTube Partner Programme (YPP) will reward creators who are more seriously committed than side hustlers. Industry stakeholders expect YouTube’s move to unleash groundbreaking changes in the way creators, brands and the platform will engage with one another going forward.

Originality in content, growing relevance of long-form content, trickling down of brand investments on creators’ pyramid, depth of audience engagement, professionalisation of creator economy and the need for brand deals to sustain creators are the key changes foreseen, marketing companies and creators told ET.

YouTube recently announced that starting February 1, 2027, new creators applying for YPP will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, apart from 1,000 subscribers. More than 3 million creators are part of YPP, it said.

In essence, YouTube has doubled the threshold limit to qualify for YPP. This shift in YouTube’s policy is more about building a sustainable creator career, said companies.

“Creators will have to consider YouTube as a long-term platform,” said Harshad Vesaokar, vice-president, LIT (Alchemy Group). “They must focus on building loyal audiences for a sustainable career.”

Established creators believe that seriously committed new creators will be able to earn brand deals much before they even qualify for YPP. Only those new creators who see YouTube as a side hustle will face challenges, they said.

YPP Income	Non-YPP Income
Advertising revenue: Watch Page ads, Shorts Feed ads	Brand sponsorships & paid integrations
YouTube Premium revenue	Affiliate / referral commissions
Channel memberships	Merchandise & physical products
Fan funding: Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks	Digital products: courses, downloads
YouTube Shopping / product-related revenue	Services — consulting, coaching and others
	Licensing & Syndication — content, clips, IP
	Appearances
	External subscriptions / paid communities

Non-YPP income: 65-85% of total creator's income

YPP Income: 15-35% of total creator's income

Sources: Influencer Marketing companies, Creators, *Industry estimates

The changes are aimed at eradicating duplication and repetitiveness in content. Creators have been developing content on a mass scale using AI and to gain from a viral trend. “We foresee that brands will select creators for partnerships based on how original and distinct their voices are over the sheer volume of content,” said Raj Mishra, CEO & MD, Chtrbox, a leading influencer marketing company.

Long-form content, especially informative and high-quality videos will gain importance in the creator ecosystem due to longer watch-hour criterion, said creators.

“Long-form content is already making a comeback,” said Sahini Banerjee, a creator known for food-related content.

In the coming years, influencer marketing companies foresee that creators who have meaningful influence but are unable to meet views’ criterion may attract brand investments.

“Brand money will move down the creators’ pyramid,” said Anirudh Sridharan, cofounder at HashFame, an influencer marketing company. “Today, the monetisation layer is moving from the platform to brands.”

“There are many creators who have meaningful influence. But their content may not consistently meet views’ criteria. This does not make them worthless. Instead, brands are likely to value them because they have niche and trusted audiences,” he said.

Companies are also increasingly expecting the depth of audience engagement to become a more critical criterion for brands than merely views. “I think brands will start looking at creators a little differently,” said Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, cofounder and CEO at Qoruz, a leading influencer marketing company. “The shift will be more about how reliably a creator can get the right audience and less about how big a creator is.”

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