YouTube sees stellar ad revenue growth

Source: YouTube

Google parent Alphabet saw stellar growth in YouTube advertising in the first quarter, with YouTube ads turning in US$8.1 billion in sales, up from US$6.7 billion for the prior year.

During the company’s earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said that vMVPD YouTube TV now had over eight million subscribers, a number revealed by YouTube CEO Neal Mohan in February, while YouTube Premium and Music now had over 100 million subscribers, a number also revealed in February.

The passing of the eight million subs milestone made YouTube TV effectively the fourth largest pay TV operator in the US.

The revenue total for the video streaming platform beat analysts’ expectations, which had coalesced around US$7.7 billion.

Google subscriptions, platforms and devices, a revenue line that includes YouTube, grew from US$7.4 billion last year to US$8.7 billion in Q1 this year.

Overall Alphabet’s revenues grew from Us$69.8 billion last year to US$80.5 billion in Q1, up an impressive 15%, while operating income was up 32% to Us$25.5 billion.

Pichai, said: “Our results in the first quarter reflect strong performance from Search, YouTube and Cloud. We are well under way with our Gemini era and there’s great momentum across the company. Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation.”