Mumbai: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki did not hold back while tweeting in praise of Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, for crossing 50 million subscribers on the video-sharing platform.

She put it across as an ‘incredible milestone’ for the channel and its team.

Her tweet read, “50M subscribers - what an incredible milestone for you and the news team, @aajtak!”, which also had a celebratory video of the news channel.

50M subscribers - what an incredible milestone for you and the news team, @aajtak! https://t.co/1u7N8Ytfh1

— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) February 1, 2023

“Thank you so much, YouTube! This is just amazing. The team is already planning its way to 100 million so YouTube had better start designing the next button,” Purie mentioned to Anand, with elation. “Trust has always been the foundation for audience engagement at AajTak. It’s no different with our YouTube channel, but on a much wider scale with hundreds of videos getting uploaded every day. We place equal emphasis on having new audiences discover our channel while ensuring loyal viewers revisit, and invest in figuring out what works on YouTube – whether this is a nuanced understanding of thumbnails or producing hero content frequently.”

Towards the early part of the year, Aaj Tak became the first news channel globally to cross 50 million subscribers. India Today Group vice-chairperson Kalli Purie caught up with YouTube managing director of APAC Gautam Anand in Singapore to venerate the exceptional feat.

In 2009, Aaj Tak flagged off its digital journey by launching its YouTube channel; it started streaming live news on YouTube for the first time in 2017. The admiration gained by the channel consequently led to its Diamond play button from YouTube in 2019 for crossing 10 million subscribers. Cut to now, three years later, Aaj Tak has become the first news channel to reach 50 million subscribers on YouTube.