YouTube paid out $3 billion to the music industry in 2019 from ads and subscriptions as it partners to grow revenue and promote new artists, said CEO Susan Wojcicki.
In a blog post Friday celebrating the company’s 15th birthday, she laid out some achievements and aspirations. The number of YouTube creators earning five figures annually, for instance, has grown by more than 40% in the past year. More than 170,000 YouTube channels around the world have more than 100,000 subscribers.
On February 14, 2005, she recalled, YouTube was registered as a website. Its founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen wanted to create a way for people around the world to share videos. Soon after, the first video - Me at the zoo – was uploaded, and before the end of the year, the site was receiving millions of views a day. The duo sold YouTube to Google in 2006 for $1.6 billion. Today it has more than 2 billion monthly users and 500 hours of video uploaded every minute.
In the post entitled “YouTube at 15: My personal journey and the road ahead,” Wojcicki said the goal of the site is to continue “to grow the ecosystem to be the best place for creators” and connect to a consumer base that’s increasingly cutting the cord. (The OTT service YouTube TV has more than 2 million subscribers and offers 70 channels.)
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In an age of fake news, fake video and ongoing issues with offensive content and piracy (many would say the site was founded on copyright infringement) she said the company is committed to acting responsibly “and will continue to do the hard work to make sure we’re on the right side of history.”
She said YouTube removed more than 8.7 million videos in the third quarter of last year.
It’s also reduced recommendations of content “that brushes up against our policies” and “borderline” content by 70%.