YouTube Launches Affiliate Program in India with Flipkart

India now has YouTube’s affiliate program, which lets video uploaders tag products in their videos and make referral fees

This comes just in time for the Indian holiday season. The business works with Flipkart, an online store owned by Walmart, and Myntra, a fashion store, to let people add products to their catalogs.

Creators must have at least 10,000 subscribers and have their channels mentioned in the partner program to join the affiliate program.

Some YouTube creators in India can already list their products on their channels. Now, creators can also tag goods they discuss in their videos, shorts, and livestreams.

Some of the new features that YouTube has added in the U.S. over the last few years have been related to shopping and affiliate links. The video streaming service began testing affiliate links in Shorts in 2022. In 2023, the company added a feature that lets creators tag items across all of their videos, which lets them make money from older videos.

In August, YouTube and Shopify strengthened their relationship, giving creators access to thousands more products. The business has also added some new features, such as a new affiliate hub and the ability for artists to make shopping collections.

“By making it easy to find products in all formats, from long-form videos and Shorts to live streams, and on all devices, including mobile, web, and Connected TVs, we’re making it easier than ever for creators to connect with their audiences,” the company wrote in a blog post.

The company said India has over 400 million YouTube users, 110 channels, and over 100,000 subscribers. Since Shorts launched in India in 2020, people have watched them over a trillion times.

Founder of influencer marketing platform Quroz, Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, said this is a good move for creators, but they shouldn’t try to sell too many items.

“It’s clear that places of entertainment are turning into stores. This is a big step forward for Indian consumers and brands regarding the trend.” He emailed TechCrunch, “This is great news for creators, especially small ones, who don’t get much attention from big brands when they want to work together.”

In South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, YouTube also has an affiliate scheme that creators can use.