Did you know that Jesus Film Project® has thousands of gospel-oriented videos on our YouTube channel? They’re available for personal and ministry use—and to share on your favorite social media platforms.
You might be thinking, “Hey, wait a second. I know I can watch your videos at jesusfilm.org/watch, and I also have access to them on the free Jesus Film Project mobile app, so why should I subscribe to the YouTube channel, too?”
That’s a great question! To answer that, it helps to know a little bit more about YouTube as a platform.
YouTube’s international reach
You’ve probably turned to YouTube to help you do everything from building a picnic table to cooking the perfect soufflé. You might use it to watch movie trailers or stream church services. Like many, you probably think of it as a simple video-delivery system. But did you know that it’s actually considered a social media platform?
YouTube allows users to create and share content and communicate with one another, which technically qualifies it as social media. In fact, it’s the second-largest social media platform on the planet (second only to Facebook), with 2.6 billion active users.
Even more impressive is the fact that YouTube is the second-largest search engine on the planet. More people use YouTube as a search engine than Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, AOL and Ask.com combined.
Over 18% of YouTube traffic comes from India. The United States comes in second, with almost half as many users as India. Here’s how the top 10 YouTube users break down by country:
| Country | Number of users | |
| 1. | India | 467 million |
| 2. | United States | 247 million |
| 3. | Indonesia | 139 million |
| 4. | Brazil | 138 million |
| 5. | Russia | 106 million |
| 6. | Japan | 102 million |
| 7. | Mexico | 80.6 million |
| 8. | Germany | 72.6 million |
| 9. | Pakistan | 71.7 million |
| 10. | Vietnam | 62.5 million |
At any given time, people worldwide are searching YouTube for information about the world around them, and YouTube is serving up videos in their language. So, from a gospel-proliferation standpoint, it’s critical that sound, Jesus-centered content is available in as many languages as possible so people can find and share this vital content.
A tool for global ministry
On top of YouTube’s organic reach, we’re also focused on equipping ministries around the world with tools they can use to reach and disciple others. Many ministries and individuals who want to serve Jesus don’t have the budget to create or purchase ministry resources. The ability to access high-quality, trustworthy and free content on a platform people are already familiar with is incredibly valuable.
So imagine a ministry team in a country with limited gospel access wants to share the JESUS film in one of the region’s languages. They could create fliers with a QR code that links to the film on YouTube, and users could be exposed to Jesus’ life-changing story and discover more Jesus-centric content on our YouTube channel.
Partnering with Jesus Film Project on YouTube
There are all kinds of inspiring and helpful videos on the Jesus Film Project® YouTube channel. They are edifying for personal and family viewing and are free to use in church and small group settings. And you can always share them with friends, family and followers on social media.
We encourage you to subscribe to the channel, too! By subscribing, you see new videos when they’re released. But from a ministry standpoint, subscribing is important. Subscription count is one of the factors that YouTube’s algorithm uses when deciding what videos to serve up for searches. The more subscribers a channel has, the greater its reach! And we want to ensure that when people search for information about Jesus, they have access to high-quality and trustworthy content.
