Who’s The Real King Of YouTube? PewDiePie Or T-Series?
YouTube, an app that has become a very significant part of our lives. Entertainment, education, motivation, and a million other things, you ask it, YouTube’s got it. YouTube has become a behemoth of a platform for all sorts of talents. We all have heard about the epic PewDiePie vs. T-Series rivalry. If for some reason, you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard of them, PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTuber who makes comedy content and T-Series is an Indian Conglomerate who puts out licensed Bollywood content on their page. The rivalry has grown so big, that we have people buying out billboards in order to support their YouTube channel of choice by asking people to subscribe to them.
PewDiePie became the most subscribed YouTuber way back in 2013 and for a very long time it seemed like nobody will ever catch up to him. But all that changed in 2016, and surprisingly so, it was a change brought on by a new telecom company in India. Weird, isn’t it? How can a telecom company compete with a YouTuber? They did not compete with him, it was more about what they brought with them and what they offered to the people of India. In 2015, Mukesh Ambani decided that India’s internet landscape required an upgrade and so he decided to launch Jio. He literally gave away free data to everyone who was ready to join his network. At a time, when a GB of data costed north of Rs. 300 which is equivalent to about $5, Jio was giving away almost unlimited 4G data to everyone. Something we Indians were not used to seeing before. Jio’s plan was simple, they wanted to take over the Indian telecom market by a storm by simply offering free data for a reasonable period, during which the users can experience 4G and how much faster it is compared to 3G. Once the gestation period was over, Jio’s plan was to offer unlimited plans at 30% cheaper rates than their competitors. And, boy, did this plan work. Jio’s growth was exponential.
Jio’s rapid widespread growth changed the way we Indians consumed data. We had lots and lots of data and a mind that was hungry for, well, Bollywood. More on that in a bit. With the sudden rise in data availability, us, curious Indians, we naturally leaned towards the likes of YouTube. Indian traffic on YouTube started growing at a never seen before rate. And what were we doing on YouTube? Well, you guessed it right. BOLLYWOOD. This is what led to T-Series’ insane rate of growth in a very short span.
T-Series has a wide range of videos including a huge roster of copyrighted songs, trailers, films, and other entertainment related content. In fact, T-Series projected a growth of over 400% in a matter of 2 years after Jio’s arrival. T-Series had about 14.4 million subscribers from its inception in 2006 till 2016 and gained over 50+ million more since then. That is some growth, isn’t it?
T-Series is not the only YouTube channel that got a huge boost from Jio’s arrival. Multiple other channels saw a huge growth in number of views after Jio’s inception. User trends have completely changed and YouTube viewing in India has become ubiquitous. Jio brought on an internet revolution that created a cultural/regional shift in India, allowing people from the obscurest of villages to be able to stream local content on YouTube. And what type of channels did they watch? Of course, more of bollywood. And other local entertainment content. Some examples of these channels are SET India, Speed Records, Sony Music India, and many more.
While the Indian Internet landscape was undergoing this tremendous shift, PewDiePie caught a whiff of what’s cooking in India and started to realize that he might soon be dethroned as the undisputed ruler of YouTube, and this worried him. A LOT. He started making videos asking his fans for help to maintain his dominance on the platform. He even made diss tracks about T-Series. And this one time, he also posted a video with a very clickbait-y title ‘JAI HIND / IM HALF INDIAN!!’. Someone surely couldn’t digest the fact that an Indian YouTube channel of all, was about to take away his throne.
PewDiePie can keep trying all he wants, using all the tricks he has got up his sleeves, because, well, trying is all he can do. According to Social Blade T-Series will cross 86 million subscribers in a matter of a year. With that growth rate, PewDiePie, we are sorry to say this, but you really don’t stand much of a chance. T-Series can go thank Jio for this, maybe.
