How To Make Money From Social Media

India's 50 million creators are monetising their skills at comedy, dance, singing, fitness and education via exciting new revenue streams to create a flourishing ecosystem.

- Asmita Dey

AJEY NAGAR has 47.4 million followers on YouTube across two channels and another 15.9 million on Instagram. He publishes roasting videos, comedy sketches (a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes), and live streams. Entertainment video maker Faisal Shaikh has 58 million followers on Josh and another 28 million on Instagram.

The duo are just a handful of nearly 50 million creators on global platforms such as YouTube and Instagram Reels and new homegrown platforms such as Josh, Moj and Chingari who make a living out of social media. They have endeared themselves to vast audiences by turning their skills at dancing, singing, acting, motivational talk, and even education, into lucrative economic opportunities.

It is a major non-metro phenomenon. On Moj, Arishfa Khan, with 13 million followers, is a native of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Divya Upadhay, who creates content around romance and heartbreak, and has 9.2 million followers, hails from Indore. Almost 300 kilometres away in Gairatganj, Himanshu Srivastava, whose staple genre is dance, has garnered 5.3 million followers, while Ambala’s Amit Sobti, a specialist in comedy videos, boasts of 2.4 million. In fact, 60-65% users of Indian video platforms live in Tier-II cities. Among the global ones, YouTube’s share of Tier-II cities stands at 40-45%, while for Instagram it is 30-35%.

Besides Youtube and Instagram Reels, they are being powered by the growing popularity of local video platforms. Of the estimated 448 million-plus social media users in the country, at least 160 million have used one of the local platforms such as Josh, Moj and Chingari. According to estimates by RedSeer Consulting, these apps together have four times more creators than China-based TikTok.