Alphabet-owned YouTube’s subscription and ad revenue is trending upwards. The company on Wednesday said it now has 325 million paying users across Google One and YouTube Premium, up from 300 million three months earlier.
YouTube reported ad revenue increased 9% to $11.38 billion in the fourth quarter, but missed analysts’ average estimates of $11.84 billion. YouTube’s overall revenue, including ads and subscriptions, came in at $60 billion in the full financial year, up 17% compared to a year earlier.
The company said that YouTube’s $8 per month, ad-free premium tier is seeing strong traction, but didn’t specify any numbers. It added that YouTube Premium also saw strong growth.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to flesh out its subscription offerings, especially to capitalize on its growing YouTube TV userbase. “We’ll soon launch new YouTube TV plans, bringing more choice and flexibility to subscribers with over 10 genre-specific packages,” he said.
YouTube Shorts recorded 200 billion average daily views in the quarter, the same as last year, but in some countries, ads on short-form video earn more than in-stream ads on a per-hour basis, the company said. Pichai also highlighted podcasts as a growing format, with viewers watching 700 million hours of podcasts from their TVs in October.
YouTube said that its AI features are seeing traction, and more than 1 million channels are using its AI creation tools. The company said that 20 million consumers used its Gemini-powered content discovery tool in December.
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