There is now a new way of presenting YouTube views. Instead of millions and billions, YouTube’s Android app is now reflecting views in lakhs and crores in India. However, the desktop and iOS apps are still showing views as millions and billions.
Moreover, the change has arrived without any update or an announcement from YouTube. It is also not visible to all Android users currently. Owing to the new change, Youtubers will now see their view counts displayed in lakhs and crores instead of the previous millions and billions. The action has been implemented on the number of subscribers as well. For now, there is no option to switch back to the original view count model.
The new update is only being tested in India. However, many Indian YouTube creators are not pleased with the change. So far, YouTube has had a homogenous approach to reflecting view counts in thousands, millions and billions for creators and viewers globally.
YouTube users are already taking to social media to express their views on the new change. A twitter user wrote, “YouTube changed the view count to show up in ‘lakhs’ and ‘crores’ by default. After years of ‘thousands’, ‘millions’ and ‘billions’, this is very confusing. I hope there is an option to switch back.”
Another user stated, “@youtube, please show us the data as usual (in k’s & m’s) Just because india was used to lakhs and crores doesn’t mean that we couldn’t incorporate with k’s & m’s. It’s pissing everyone off. Have doubt’s?? Why don’t you run a poll…”
A third user agreed with the sentiment. He tweeted, “What kind of joke is this @YouTube @YouTubeIndia? Atleast Give us the option to change the format of how we want to see the views. I am literally very uncomfortable with the lakhs and crores format. Please give me my Millions and Billions back.”