Gen Z at work: How YouTube fan page creators are evolving content economy

Suyash Aesthetiic, one of fashion content creator Suraj Pal Singh’s and Yashi Tank’s fan pages, helps fans connect with their idols. It’s run by 15-year-old Manan Doshi, a longtime fan of the couple

Type in your favourite celebrity's name on YouTube and you'll have to sift through a whole array of accounts competing for attention, along with the original. Unlike the olden days, today you have celeb's fans jostling for the same number of eyeballs. And this is completely legal and fair, with only the verified tick mark being an indicator of the original celebrity's identity.

Earlier this week, YouTube released its survey report to mark 15 years of its operations in India. The findings show that 48 per cent of Gen Z viewers who were surveyed watched content created by fans of influencers, celebrities, and public figures. The survey, that looked at viewership trends over a period of 12 months, also found that 69 per cent of YouTube's viewers preferred a diverse format of content, using a mix of long videos, short videos and live streams.

The main reason behind the rise in fandom-driven content, according to Ishan John Chatterjee, Managing Director at YouTube India, is the rapid growth of the creative economy in the country.

Shreya Sharma and Shruti Kumari

"An evolution in technology has democratised ideas, trends, and expressions. India has seen a rise in its creative entrepreneurs. Fifteen years ago, content was monolithic, because creators made the content and the fans watched it - and the interaction didn't stretch more than liking or commenting. Now, however, content has assumed multidimensional layers because of the blurring between creation and reaction," Chatterjee said during the release of the survey report earlier this week.

What mid-day found interesting is that many of these pages, with massive follower counts, have unassuming 20-somethings at the helm. Like Manan Doshi, all of 15 years old, who runs the Suyash Aesthetiic page on YouTube. He started it a year ago as a fan page dedicated to fashion content creators Suraj Pal Singh and Yashi Tank, and has already racked up over two lakh subscribers.

"I download their videos from Instagram and make edits using trending songs, which I then post on YouTube," Doshi says.

He also has an Instagram fan page by the same name, but YouTube is his home base. His content focuses on Shorts, a form of video similar to the Instagram Reel, and rakes in anywhere between 5,000 to one million views. The most popular edits, he says, are the ones set to trending love songs. Unsurprisingly, the largest number of viewers come from the 18 to 24 age range, in sync with Youtube's findings.

Singh and Tank run two YouTube pages - Suyash Vlogs and Suyash Fashion. Singh tells mid-day that they maintain a strong rapport with the biggest fan pages, forming WhatsApp groups and sending them hampers to encourage linkbacks and promotions.

"Many of their fan pages have over a hundred thousand followers and have been around as long as ours," says Singh.

YouTube, however, does not support blatant "copying" of content from other accounts, and had actually put into place rules on impersonation. A fan page has to specify clearly that it is not plagiarising from the original creator. Accounts that appear to closely resemble the original creator are at risk of getting disabled or deleted.

And then, there are the "fan wars"; vicious battles for relevance and traction as a direct result of a cut-throat competition.

For Shreya Sharma, the 18-year-old BCom student behind the Carrystan YouTube page, it took four deleted Instagram accounts before she decided to shift to YouTube in 2021. "Some Carryminati haters perform mass reporting (where large groups of people report accounts en masse), leading to the accounts getting disabled," she explains. "Many commented saying I was using Carryminati to earn subscribers and money.

But there was no monetary benefit; I just want to support him with my heart."

Instagram fan pages tend to be more interactive, simply because the nature of the platform. Shruti Kumari, 21, a Delhi-based student runs Blink India Official, an Instagram fan account dedicated to the Kpop girl group Blackpink. "It took eight to nine months to grow my page," she explains. "Back then, in 2020, we didn't have reels, so I used to post fan pictures and memes. The key is interaction, because most fan pages don't respond to the comments."

As Chatterjee puts it, "Participative viewing is making fandoms more multi-layered. Multi-format viewing experiences are changing the way fans experience content and what they expect from their fan creators."