YouTube has announced an expansion of its Shopping affiliate programme in India, bringing new beauty and lifestyle merchants — Nykaa and Purplle — to the platform.
The company said shopping-related watch time on YouTube has grown by more than 250 per cent year-on-year, with over 200 million logged-in users searching for shopping-related content. The expansion of YouTube Shopping is expected to give creators access to a wider product catalogue and strengthen YouTube’s position in the online shopping ecosystem.
With the addition of Nykaa and Purplle, creators enrolled in the affiliate programme will be able to tag and monetise products from the two platforms, in addition to Flipkart and Myntra. YouTube will also launch a joint programme with Nykaa to discover and train the next generation of beauty and lifestyle creators in India.
India’s creator economy is thriving on YouTube. Last year, over 100 million channels uploaded a video on YouTube. “What constantly amazes us is how Indian creators are transcending geographies, sectors and languages,” said Gunjan Soni, managing director, YouTube India.
This is evident in how over 15,000 channels have already reached over a million subscribers. “As a leader in the creator economy, we have always believed that our success is closely linked to the success of the creators and also the success of advertisers. Youtube is perhaps offering the most comprehensive of ways to monetise,” she said. Over Rs 21,000 crore were paid out to creators and artistes over the last three years.
Launched in 2024, more than 40 per cent of eligible creators in India have joined the Shopping Affiliate programme, with over three million videos already tagged.
To enhance the shopping experience, YouTube said it is rolling out AI-powered product tagging, which automatically displays product links at the moment they are mentioned in videos. Later this year, the company will test a system that can automatically identify and tag all eligible products.
YouTube also announced new tools to strengthen brand collaborations. The platform will introduce a new, flexible format that allows creators to insert and replace brand segments. Also, YouTube Shorts creators will soon be able to add a link to a brand’s site for brand deals, enabling creators to drive results and providing advertisers with direct traffic and conversion data.
The updates underline YouTube’s effort to turn its vast creator base into a commerce engine.