YouTube on Thursday announced a key milestone for YouTube Premium and Music, the Google-owned company’s paid services for ad-free access and music streaming: a combined 100 million subscribers.
The new subscriber figure is still small compared to YouTube’s overall user base of 2.5 billion people, but YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Forbes that the site’s subscription business is part of a “twin engine growth” plan with its advertising business.
“We obviously are an ad-supported business,” he said. “But we have also worked very hard to build up a subscription business. And that is a meaningful part of our business at this point.”
Hitting the triple-digit millions means the company’s subscription business is slowly catching up to a number of well-established rivals. Amazon Prime, arguably the gold standard of digital subscription bundles, reportedly had more than 200 million subscribers last year, while Spotify premium, another ad-free service, has 226 million subscribers. (YouTube Premium’s 100 million subscribers also includes people currently on one-month free trials, the company said, though YouTube declined to say how many.)
The $13.99 per month Premium service, which first debuted in 2015, includes access to YouTube Music Premium (which costs $10.99 per month on its own) and special features, like the ability to download videos for offline viewing. Premium users also get access to early or experimental YouTube features, like an artificial intelligence tool the company tested last year that uses generative AI to let people ask questions about a video.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2024/01/31/youtubes-premium-and-music-100-million-subscribers/?sh=582518a76d89
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The new subscriber figure is still small compared to YouTube’s overall user base of 2.5 billion people, but YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Forbes that the site’s subscription business is part of a “twin engine growth” plan with its advertising business.
“We obviously are an ad-supported business,” he said. “But we have also worked very hard to build up a subscription business. And that is a meaningful part of our business at this point.”
Hitting the triple-digit millions means the company’s subscription business is slowly catching up to a number of well-established rivals. Amazon Prime, arguably the gold standard of digital subscription bundles, reportedly had more than 200 million subscribers last year, while Spotify premium, another ad-free service, has 226 million subscribers. (YouTube Premium’s 100 million subscribers also includes people currently on one-month free trials, the company said, though YouTube declined to say how many.)
The $13.99 per month Premium service, which first debuted in 2015, includes access to YouTube Music Premium (which costs $10.99 per month on its own) and special features, like the ability to download videos for offline viewing. Premium users also get access to early or experimental YouTube features, like an artificial intelligence tool the company tested last year that uses generative AI to let people ask questions about a video.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2024/01/31/youtubes-premium-and-music-100-million-subscribers/?sh=582518a76d89
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. Subscribe here: https://art19.com/shows/forbes-daily-briefing
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
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Category
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, February 3rd.
00:05 Today on Forbes, YouTube's premium and music paid services hit 100 million subscribers.
00:14 YouTube on Thursday announced a key milestone for YouTube Premium and Music, the Google-owned
00:19 company's paid services for ad-free access and music streaming.
00:23 The number?
00:24 A combined 100 million subscribers.
00:27 The new subscriber figure is still small compared to YouTube's overall user base of 2.5 billion
00:33 people.
00:34 But YouTube CEO Neil Moen told Forbes that the site's subscription business is part of
00:40 a "twin-engine growth plan" with its advertising business.
00:45 He said, "We obviously are an ad-supported business, but we have also worked very hard
00:50 to build up a subscription business, and that is a meaningful part of our business at this
00:54 point."
00:56 Hitting the triple-digit millions means the company's subscription business is slowly
01:00 catching up to a number of well-established rivals.
01:03 Amazon Prime, arguably the gold standard of digital subscription bundles, reportedly had
01:09 more than 200 million subscribers last year, while Spotify Premium, another ad-free service,
01:15 has 226 million subscribers.
01:18 "YouTube Premium's 100 million subscribers also includes people currently on one-month
01:23 free trials," the company said.
01:25 Though YouTube declined to say how many.
01:29 The $13.99 per month Premium service, which first debuted in 2015, includes access to
01:35 YouTube Music Premium, which costs $10.99 per month on its own, and special features
01:40 like the ability to download videos for offline viewing.
01:45 Premium users also get access to early or experimental YouTube features, like an artificial
01:49 intelligence tool the company tested last year that uses generative AI to let people
01:54 ask questions about a video.
01:58 YouTube Music, which has a paid ad-free counterpart, was released as a part of YouTube Premium
02:03 nine years ago to compete with streaming giant Spotify and then upstart Apple Music.
02:09 Three years later, YouTube allowed people to subscribe to YouTube Music Premium on its
02:13 own, separate from the company's larger Premium package.
02:17 On an earnings call earlier this week, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google's pool
02:23 of subscription services generated combined revenue of $15 billion last year.
02:28 That includes YouTube Premium and Music, YouTube TV, a cable alternative that includes a lucrative
02:34 NFL Sunday ticket add-on for streaming access to football games, and Google One, a subscription
02:40 plan for extra storage for Google apps like Gmail and Drive.
02:45 On the earnings call, Pichai said, "YouTube is the key driver of our subscription revenues.
02:51 YouTube Music and Premium have real momentum."
02:55 It's unclear how much revenue Premium and Music generate per year, since, as we said,
03:00 that $100 million figure includes free trials and Moen declined to provide further detail.
03:06 Outside of subscriptions, YouTube generated $9.2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 15.5%
03:12 year over year.
03:15 YouTube has worked hard to boost its numbers.
03:17 The company aggressively markets the service with a pop-up ad at the corner of watch pages,
03:22 sometimes partially obscuring the video screen and title, offering a month-long free trial.
03:27 The ads are so prevalent that they've become a meme.
03:31 One of them mocks the persistent pop-up as "harassment."
03:35 Another shows Jim Carrey's Dumb and Dumber character Lloyd Christmas uttering his famously
03:39 clueless line, "So you're telling me there's a chance?"
03:44 The subscription milestone comes as the advertising business model many big platforms depend on
03:50 continues to draw scrutiny.
03:52 Google is expected to face a massive antitrust trial later this year, targeting the company's
03:56 ad tech, and whether or not the search giant elbowed out competition with its services
04:01 for ad auctions.
04:03 The advertising model has also been blamed for inflaming the modern internet's biggest
04:07 woes, pushing a system where eyeballs and clicks lead to revenue, incentivizing extremist
04:12 content and misinformation.
04:16 For full coverage, check out Richard Nieves' piece on Forbes.com.
04:21 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:23 Thanks for tuning in.
04:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]