Google to launch YouTube production studio in Mumbai

New Delhi: Google India on Wednesday said it will open its video production studio YouTube Space in Mumbai to support India’s growing community of YouTube content creators.

The initiative is the first in India, and the second in Asia, following Tokyo, where the Space project was launched in 2013.

YouTube will partner Whistling Woods film school to set up YouTube Space Mumbai.

In a blog post, David Macdonald, head of YouTube Spaces, Asia Pacific, wrote, “India is seeing an emergence of a new generation of YouTube creators who are capturing the colour, music, humour and drama of India more creatively than ever before. In fact, Indian creators are now among the top contributors in Asia when it comes to driving time spent on YouTube watching videos.”

According to the blog post, Whistling Woods International has been rated one of the 10 best film schools in the world by The Hollywood Reporter, running undergraduate, postgraduate and short programmes in practical filmmaking.

YouTube Space Mumbai will essentially provide some of India’s top YouTube content creators, “as well as their students free-access to Whistling Woods’ studios, high-end audio, visual and editing equipment,” wrote Macdonald. It will also host training programmes, workshops and community events.

The announcement also said YouTube was in the “advanced stages of setting up the space”, and that it would be “opening the gates for all creators soon.”

India is a key market for YouTube. Besides a considerable growth in content consumption owing to the proliferation of smartphones, India has also witnessed a surge in the content creators’ community, especially on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Two of India’s most popular YouTube content creators include comedy collectives All India Bakchod (AIB) and The Viral Fever (TVF). Earlier this year, both channels crossed over a million subscribers, making them among the most subscribed channels across Asia.

YouTube launched its Spaces initiative in London in 2012, following which it launched in Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York City and Sao Paulo. In April this year, YouTube partnered MET Film School Berlin to launch YouTube Space Berlin. Mumbai will be the seventh YouTube Space globally.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.