Google to make YouTube videos available offline soon in India

NEW DELHI: After Android One, India will have another first from Google as the tech giant plans to make YouTube available offline, allowing people to save on download charges for watching their favourite videos.

In the coming weeks, once the service is available offline, viewers can download the video, save it and watch it later without downloading it again and in turn, save on recurring data download charges.

"YouTube is popular here. You watch some videos again and again. How awesome would it be if you could keep watching them again and again without having to pay for data, and take the videos with you wherever you go?" Google Vice President Product Management Ceasar Sengupta said.

He added that in the next few weeks, YouTube will be available offline in India.

As of now, the service is not available in any other country.

"You can download a video once, save it to your phone, and watch it again and again," he said.

According to industry reports, the online video consumption is pegged at over 3.7 billion videos per month in the country.

According to Comscore, the total online video audience in India saw growth of over 70 per cent in 2013 with the average viewer watching 18 per cent more videos and spending 28 per cent more time viewing.

Video consumption on mobile phones has also been growing steadily in the country.

YouTube alone gets over 60 million unique users a month and about one-third of the traffic coming from mobile phones.

India is the first country where Google has launched its Android One smartphones, in partnership with handset makers Micromax, Karbonn and Spice. Other countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Philippines will follow in the coming months.