YouTube Fuels Google's Growth with 325 Million Subscribers and Over $60 Billion in Revenue
Google's subscription services saw significant growth in the fourth quarter, largely driven by the strong performance of the YouTube platform, which continues to enhance its revenue from both advertising and subscriptions.
The Alphabet Inc. subsidiary reported that the number of paying subscribers for "Google One" and "YouTube Premium" has risen to 325million, up from 300million three months earlier, indicating a notable acceleration in growth.
* Advertising and Subscription Revenue
YouTube's advertising revenue grew by 9% in the fourth quarter to $11.38 billion, although it fell short of analysts' average expectations of $11.84 billion.
Total revenue for the platform, which includes both advertising and subscriptions, reached approximately $60 billion annually, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 17%.
Google confirmed that the ad-free YouTube Premium subscription, priced at around $8 per month, is experiencing strong demand and emphasized that paid subscriptions remain a key driver of growth.
* Expansion of YouTube TV Packages
Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, revealed plans to expand subscription offerings, particularly focusing on YouTube TV.
Pichai stated: "We will soon introduce new plans for YouTube TV that will offer more options and flexibility, with over 10 specialized packages based on content type."
* YouTube Shorts, Podcasts, and Artificial Intelligence
In the short content segment, YouTube Shorts averaged 200billion views per day during the quarter, maintaining a similar figure to the previous year, with some markets generating higher revenue per hour of view compared to traditional video ads.
Podcasts also experienced significant growth, with users watching around 700million hours of podcast content on televisions in October alone.
In the realm of artificial intelligence, the company noted that its AI-driven tools are highly popular, with over one million channels utilizing AI content creation tools, while approximately 20million users engaged with the Gemini-based content discovery tool in December.
