Why Is Nykaa Making YouTube Videos? Inside the Media Strategy Making Millions Beyond E-Commerce
When most people open the Nykaa app on their phones, they see a place to buy lipstick, shampoo, or perfume. But behind the scenes, Nykaa operates on a business model that looks less like a traditional store and more like a media network.
Instead of spending millions of dollars every month paying Google, Instagram, and Facebook to show advertisements to online shoppers, Nykaa created its own media ecosystem. Through YouTube makeup tutorials, beauty blogs, influencer masterclasses, and live app shows, Nykaa gets shoppers to come directly to its platform.
Even better, Nykaa turns around and sells advertising space inside its app and videos to major global beauty brands. This strategy—known in the business world as a Retail Media Network—allows Nykaa to earn money twice: first when a customer buys a product, and second when a beauty brand pays Nykaa to advertise on its app.
Here is a breakdown of how Nykaa built its owned media empire, why "content-commerce" is so profitable, and what other Indian businesses can learn from this strategy.
The High Cost of Online Shopping: Why Renting Ads Hurts E-Commerce
To understand why Nykaa's media strategy is so clever, you first have to look at how regular online shopping websites work. Most e-commerce platforms operate on a continuous cash-burn cycle:
Renting Audience Attention: To get people to visit their websites, e-commerce companies pay huge sums of money to tech giants like Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) for digital advertisements.
Rising Ad Costs: As thousands of brands fight for the same online space, the cost of acquiring a single paying customer keeps rising every year.
Zero Customer Loyalty: If an e-commerce store stops running ads, customer traffic vanishes immediately because buyers have no personal connection to the shopping platform itself.
Nykaa realized early on that relying entirely on foreign advertising platforms was an expensive trap. To build a sustainable, profitable business, they needed to own the media channels that attracted beauty lovers in the first place.
Content-Commerce: How Education Drives Sales
Instead of pushing hard-sell advertisements, Nykaa built a massive library of educational beauty content.
YouTube Masterclasses and How-To Guides
Nykaa built one of India's largest brand-owned YouTube networks. Instead of just listing a foundation or a hair serum, they produce videos showing viewers how to apply makeup for Indian skin tones, how to fix frizzy hair in humid weather, or how to build a simple skincare routine. When a viewer watches a 5-minute video, they get direct links to buy the exact products used in the tutorial.
Influencer Partnerships and Real Reviews
Rather than using traditional television celebrities for every campaign, Nykaa partnered with hundreds of beauty influencers, makeup artists, and everyday creators. By giving honest reviews, testing products on camera, and hosting live Q&A sessions inside the Nykaa app, these creators build deep trust with everyday consumers.
Magazine-Style Beauty Blogs
Nykaa operates an in-house digital beauty magazine and blog network. Millions of shoppers search Google every month for simple beauty questions—such as "How to treat acne naturally" or "Best lipsticks for daily office wear." Nykaa’s blogs rank high on search engines, bringing millions of free, organic visitors to its app every month without spending a single rupee on paid search ads.
Selling Ads Inside the App: The Retail Media Advantage
Once Nykaa successfully built a loyal audience of over 55 million active shoppers who visit its platform to explore beauty content, global brands took notice.
Major international beauty companies—such as L'Oréal, Maybelline, Charlotte Tilbury, and Rare Beauty—want to reach shoppers who are already holding their credit cards and looking to buy beauty items. Nykaa monetizes this high-intent audience by charging brands for prime advertising space:
Top App Banners and Sponsored Searches: When you search for "sunscreen" or "shampoo" on Nykaa, brands pay a fee to have their products featured right at the top of your search results.
Featured Spotlights in Tutorials: Beauty brands pay Nykaa to feature their new launches in Nykaa’s official YouTube videos, live shopping broadcasts, and Instagram reels.
Targeted In-App Promotions: Because Nykaa knows which customers prefer luxury skincare and which ones look for budget makeup, it allows brands to send highly targeted notifications directly to interested buyers.
This advertising business carries much higher profit margins than selling physical boxes. While selling a bottle of shampoo involves storage, shipping, and delivery costs, selling a digital banner or video feature inside an app costs almost nothing to deliver once the platform is built.
Free Promotion for Nykaa’s Owned Brands
There is a second major benefit to owning a media network: promoting your own products for free.
Over the years, Nykaa launched its own family of in-house brands, including Kay Beauty (co-created with actor Katrina Kaif), Dot & Key skincare, Nykaa Cosmetics, and Nykd innerwear.
In a traditional setup, launching a new cosmetics brand requires spending crores of rupees on billboard, television, and social media campaigns. Nykaa, however, can introduce a new Kay Beauty lipstick or Dot & Key face wash directly to millions of engaged beauty fans through its existing YouTube channels, app notifications, and beauty blogs at zero extra advertising cost.
This gives Nykaa’s owned brands an immediate advantage over traditional competitors, helping its in-house brand portfolio grow into a multi-thousand-crore business on its own.
The Bottom Line
Nykaa’s story is a masterclass in modern digital business.
By combining entertainment, education, and shopping into a single platform, Nykaa proved that the best way to sell products isn't by blasting people with annoying ads. Instead, by building a media channel that teaches people something useful, customers come naturally—and rival brands will actually pay you to advertise on your platform.
Nikunjj Jhawar is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with nearly two decades of experience in the financial services industry. Having worked with global institutions such as HSBC and Credit Suisse in investment-related roles, he brings deep expertise in finance and markets. He is the Founder of mangopeoplenews.com, where he focuses on making complex topics in finance, markets and business accessible and relevant to everyday readers.
