How YouTube reviews are driving consumer purchase behavior for consumer electronics products

Abstract

YouTube has rapidly grown over the years and is today, one of the largest video sharing platforms in the world. The key drivers for its growth have been early development and easy accessibility combines with its free to use feature. The wider adaptability of the platform has also enabled various organization to use the platform as one of their core communications channels to launch products and services. In India, the rate of consumption of YouTube videos have gone up significantly in a short span of time. With close to 250 Mn active users, it has penetrated close to 85 percent of the total internet population in the country. This makes India one of the most attractive markets for YouTube. The quick adoption of YouTube as a medium for video consumption, quickly led to emergence of YouTube reviewers who have successfully been able to influence viewers and hence affect the purchasing behaviour. This is particularly prominent for consumer electronics products such as smart phones, laptops, speakers, gaming consoles and many more. The video review provides the consumer with a rich experience of product experience, technical feature understanding and opinions of a YouTuber that is subscribed and viewed by millions of users, all at the convenience of a push of a button. Thus it becomes extremely crucial to study this newly emerging popular trend. The key objective of this paper is to identify and measure the strength of various factors that make a YouTube review popular. Popularity in this context is defined by a high number of views, likes and subscribers. Additionally, the paper also aims to study the effect of these factors on the purchase intention of consumers for consumer electronics.