Yogi Yogendra awoke one morning to discover a hefty commission, flashing on his analytics dashboard, from a pair of headphones he had reviewed on Youtube. And also on a pack of diapers he had absolutely nothing to do with—just because it was in the shopper’s cart already.

This is one of the many ways the Google-owned video-sharing platform is pushing creators to adopt its Shopping affiliate feature, launched in India in October 2024. Yogendra, known online as Technical Yogi, a tech creator with two million Youtube subscribers, had just seen it in action.

Shopping is designed to integrate e-commerce seamlessly into the platform. And it seems to be working.

Within a year of launching, over 40%Google India BlogFueling the next era of creator-led shopping experiences in India of all eligible Indian Youtubers have started using it. The platform has partnered with four marketplaces through which it sells—Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa, and Purplle.

Youtube’s larger flywheel has been spinning like clockwork. Its Indian arm has already outpacedexchange4mediaIndia's OTT market hits Rs 36,940 Cr in FY24-25; YouTube grabs 38% share other OTT platforms to grab 38% market share, raking in Rs 14,300 crore in revenue from ads and subscriptions in FY25. In 2024, its creative ecosystem—from creators and their staff to brands—contributedBusiness StandardYouTube's creative ecosystem added over ₹16K cr to India's GDP in 2024 over Rs 16,000 crore to the country’s GDP, the equivalent of over 900,000 full-time jobs..

But something was missing. For decades, Youtube has been passively sitting on a goldmine: hundreds of hours of shopping-related watchtime, which grew more than 250%Google India BlogFueling the next era of creator-led shopping experiences in India in the last year alone. Viewers flock to the platform with their high-intent shopping-related searches. Think a detailed breakdown of the “top 10 smartphones of 2025”. 

The platform has finally decided it’s time to cash in on this.