YouTube contributed roughly 10% to all Google revenue which makes the video-sharing platform’s ad business nearly one fifth the size of Facebook’s, and more than six times than all of Amazon-owned Twitch.
Video-sharing platform YouTube generated $15.1bn in ad revenue in fiscal 2019, including $4.7bn in the fourth quarter, Google revealed in its earnings report this week.
The announcement marks the first time Google revealed how much money YouTube-hosted ads contribute to its revenue since Google bought the website in 2006 for $1.65bn.
In fiscal 2017, the platform, led by CEO Susan Wojcicki, generated $8.15bn in ad revenue, followed by $11.15bn in fiscal 2018. In other words, YouTube’s ad revenue has nearly doubled over the past two years.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts that its YouTube TV streaming bundle now has more than 2mn subscribers and that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium now have more than 20mn paid subscribers. The unit’s subscription revenue now has a $3bn annual run rate, Pichai said.
Google Search generated $98.1bn in 2019, the company said, but that’s just a 15% increase over 2018. Alphabet also broke out revenue from its Google Cloud unit for the first time, revealing that the division generated $8.9bn in revenue last year.
Overall, Alphabet made $46bn in revenue in the quarter that ended December 31, 2019, a 17% jump over 2018. Nearly $10.7bn of that was profit, the company says.
