YouTube brings its affilate program to India, partners with Flipkart

Just ahead of the local festive season, YouTube has brought its affiliate program to India, letting uploaders tag products in their videos and earn referrals. The company is partnering with Walmart-owned e-commerce service Flipkart and fashion retailer Myntra to open up their product catalogs to uploaders.

To be eligible for the affiliate program, creators must have their channels listed in the partner program and have at least 10,000 subscribers.

YouTube already allows select creators in India to list their own merchandise on their channels, and now creators can tag products they might be talking about in their videos, shorts and livestreams.

Image Credits: YouTube

In the U.S., YouTube has launched multiple programs that are related to shopping and affiliate links over the last few years. In 2022, the video streaming service started testing affiliate links in Shorts, and in 2023, the company launched a feature to let creators tag products in bulk across their video library so they can monetize older videos.

YouTube in August expanded its partnership with Shopify to get creators access to thousands of more products. The company has also launched new features, like letting creators make shopping collections and a new affiliate hub.

“By making product discovery seamless across every format—from long-form videos and Shorts to live streams—and accessible on any device—mobile, web, and Connected TVs—we’re amplifying the impact creators can have and making it easier than ever for them to connect with their audiences,” the company said in a blog post.

The company said that India, YouTube’s biggest user base with over 400 million users, has more than 110,00 channels and over 100,00 subscribers, and since Shorts launched in India in 2020, users have viewed them over a trillion times.

Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, founder of influencer marketing platform Quroz, said this is a positive step for creators, but they should stay away from overselling products.

“It is evident that entertainment places are becoming stores, and this is a milestone event in the trend for Indian consumers and brands. This is great news for creators — especially of smaller size —who don’t get much spotlight from mainstream brands for partnership,” he told TechCrunch over email.

YouTube also has an active affiliate program for creators in South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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