Move over Pewdiepie, Tseries is the new Youtube king
LOSANGELES: Youtube is about to crown a new king. T-series Pvt., one of India’s largest record labels, will become the most-subscribed channel on the world’s most popular video site in the next couple weeks. At the beginning of the year, the firm had 30 million fans, fewer than half of the following for No. 1 Pewdiepie, the Swedish video-game geek and jokester whose real name is Felix Kjellberg.
The company’s ascent has shocked the tight-knit community of online personalities, prompting some to rally behind Pewdiepie and delay T-series’ ascent. While claiming the most subscribers on Youtube is largely a symbolic achievement, and the company already has the most monthly views, the end of Pewdiepie’s five-year reign is a watershed that reflects important changes as internet use gets more global.
More than half of the 10 most popular channels on Youtube in terms of monthly views are from outside the US, and many of them belong to professional media firms. Youtube’s previous champions have been young, male amateurs like the video blogger Ray William Johnson and comedy duo Smosh. But after years as a mostly Western site for pranks and cat clips, the Google-owned firm has lured most of the world’s largest media giants to the site, blurring the line between professional and amateur.
That’s opened the door for Noida, India-based T-series, which operates 29 channels and boasts more than 100 million combined Youtube subscribers. Its flagship, also called T-series, has been adding three million subscribers a month and will be the first non-english-language channel to hit No. 1. “This digital era is fantastic,’ Bhushan Kumar, T-series’ chief executive officer (CEO), said in an interview. ‘It’s here to stay. It’s giving us popularity. It’s giving us recognition.”
T-series was founded in 1984 by the CEO’S father, Gulshan Dua. The son of a Delhi juice vendor, Dua started making money by producing and selling cassettes. Dua, who later adopted the family name Kumar, turned a momand-pop shop into a conglomerate that sold CDS and home electronics. The firm achieved its breakout success with the soundtrack to
a Hindi musical romance that is still one of the best-selling records in the history of India.
Aashiqui,