worklife youtube special
Rajarshi Lahiri | case study
the insider
YouTube’s head of creator partnerships Rajarshi Lahiri explains how you can build a sustainable business Beyond ad revenue
ou don’t have to be a YouTuber for very long before you start second-guessing what works and what doesn’t – whether
The rise of
creator-led products is one of the clearest trends
it be views, growing your subscribers or making money. So when the head of creator partnerships at YouTube for the UK and Ireland talks business, it’s time to listen, learn and plan for the future. That man is Rajarshi Lahiri. He says that, for years, creators have treated YouTube as a single-format platform where you made videos, uploaded them and hoped that the algorithm did the rest. This approach no longer works. “YouTube as a platform is not one format,” he says. “We have long-form, Shorts, live, podcasts – the whole set. My biggest recommendation is to build a winning strategy based on multi-formats.” The creators growing fastest are the ones using all of them together. That doesn’t mean creators need to abandon their core identity. A filmmaker may focus mainly on long-form content, but Shorts, live streams and podcasts can all work around that to amplify reach and deepen engagement. One obvious example is using high-performing Shorts to funnel viewers towards larger projects. Listen to the audience That interconnected ecosystem is becoming more important as audiences fragment across multiple viewing habits and devices. Yet, Lahiri believes creators should focus on more than just formats, as community matters too. Comments, audience feedback and viewer conversations often become the foundation for future content ideas. “Ideas come from the audience,” he says. “Creators should pay attention to what viewers are actually responding to.” Alongside understanding of audience growth, monetisation is evolving rapidly. Advertising remains central through the YouTube Partner Programme, but Lahiri says alternative revenue streams are becoming more important.
Community leader Lahiri recognises that content matters, but so does your audience
“Shopping is becoming a complete part of our monetisation ecosystem,” he says. The rise of creator-led products and businesses is one of the clearest trends YouTube is seeing. Creators are launching brands directly to their audiences. Lahiri points to travel creator Maddie Borge and her Pastael packing cube brand, which she launched via YouTube Shopping and sold out within hours. Next-gen media companies Brand deals remain a major focus, particularly as YouTube develops new and improved tools designed to connect creators with brand advertisers in more
efficient ways. But perhaps the biggest shift Lahiri observes is creators evolving into something larger than individuals who have channels. “They are becoming creator- entrepreneurs, and are building studios,” he describes. That transformation is happening throughout the platform as creators hire teams, expand production capabilities and launch businesses extending far beyond YouTube itself. Lahiri believes the next few years will accelerate this dramatically. “The creators of today are becoming the next generation of media companies,” he concludes.
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