How much money does YouTube generate for Google? That is the question that many have asked over the years, although there was never an official statement that released the data. They speculated with certain amounts, but little more. Now yes, we know how much the ads bring to the platform.
A multi-billion-a-year business
Google has revealed for the first time in its almost 15 years of life how much money youtube makes. On the occasion of the financial results In the last three months, Sundar Pichai has revealed how much money his video platform managed to generate in the last year: 15.000 million.
When Google bought YouTube in 2006 the company paid $1.650 billion. An amount that at that time was truly crazy. Of course, if they did it, it's because they saw the potential. Something similar to what FaceBook itself did years later in a similar case when buying WhatsApp. But back to the online video service.
Holy cow. Google reveals it made over $15 billion from YouTube ads last year alone — up 36 percent from 2018 and 86 percent compared to 2017. https://t.co/vz0SWTbGeC pic.twitter.com/uqyvBnrWlv
—Brian Fung (@b_fung) February 3, 2020
If my math is right, YouTube made $28,822 per minute in ad revenue last year.
It also recorded $1.7 billion in European Commission ends in 2019.
So it would only take about 59,000 minutes, or 983 hours, for YouTube to make back for Google what Google paid to the EC. pic.twitter.com/7DJNV2fTzS
—Brian Fung (@b_fung) February 3, 2020
From that 2006 to this current 2020, YouTube had never made it clear how much money the ads from its videos generated. That unknown disappears and we already know that there are many millions that enter. What's more, in the last three years it has only grown. In 2017, 8.150 million were entered, in 2018 11.155 million and in 2019 the 15.149 already mentioned. Still, that high number from last year is even more impressive when you consider that he generates nearly $29.000 in profit per minute.
Despite this, YouTube only contributes the 10% of Google's total revenue. Although compared to other technological companies, it is almost a fifth of what Facebook earns and six times more than what Twitch does. Therefore, it is an important business and it seems to be in very good health despite the stiff competition and the movements that are taking place in the field of online video.
The contrast between YouTube and Alphabet
Why has Google given YouTube data when it has never done so? Well, as pointed out in some media, the reason could be the drop in Alphabet's income compared to what had been estimated.
Therefore, to calm down a bit investors who might not be very happy with the general results, Google would have provided this data with the intention of demonstrating that the future does not only depend on a single pillar and that both video and online services the cloud will play a fundamental role in the coming months. Although non-investors won't care about that, and all they'll think about is how profitable YouTube is being.