With 61 % of the French who connect every week, YouTube stands up so much more than a simple social network. The platform shapes our digital uses between the sparkling creativity, marketing influence and boom in educational content.
With 61 % of the French who combine every week, which has just published a note on the key figures from YouTube in France. The platform is more than a simple social network and has become a research reflex for millions of Internet users, especially for tutorials, product tests or even educational content. The many competitors exceeds its importance: YouTube is the third most common network according to Facebook and Instagram and captures a massive and committed audience.
The YouTube ecosystem in France is characterized by a creative excitement: on average, a French chain brings 132,000 subscribers, and 320 million prospects are generated every day. Content manufacturers, often young – between 25 and 34 years old – form an audiovisual landscape in which games, lifestyle, kitchen or even popular scientific competition compete for the attention of the audience. It is even more impressive that almost 1,000 French channels have exceeded a million subscribers and testify the ability of YouTube to transform simple enthusiasts into real media figures.
An essential lever for companies
For brands, YouTube has become a significant lever, Reech explains: 41 % of the companies now integrate them into their strategy and use the creator’s recommendation. In 2024, 7 % of the videos thus included a commercial partnership that showed an average engagement rate of 5.95 %. The attractiveness of the platform cannot be denied: the growth of the number of subscribers is faster there than on Instagram ( + 9 % against + 7 % in six months), which reflects the public more and more.
However, YouTube is not based on its achievements and the platform develops to meet new expectations of users. If 72 %of the French use it primarily for fun, many can also use it to learn (56 %) and inspire (55 %). The rise of educational and interactive content testifies to this diversification of uses. In addition, there is a dazzling boom in short format: the YouTube shorts, these videos of less than three minutes, which were set up in response to Tikok or the roles of Instagram/Facebook, generated 73 billion views in France in 2024.
“In two decades, the platform switched from a simple sharing location to a real pillar of entertainment, marketing and pop culture,” said Claire Dececomer, heading CSM at Reech.