YouTube Reveals Revenue for First Time: $15.1 Billion in 2019
For the first time, Google revealed just how big of an advertising machine YouTube is. The company said Monday that YouTube generated $15.1 billion in ad revenue in fiscal 2019, including $4.7…
For the first time, Google revealed just how big of an advertising machine YouTube is. The company said Monday that YouTube generated $15.1 billion in ad revenue in fiscal 2019, including $4.7 billion in the fourth quarter.
The company disclosed the numbers in its quarterly earnings report, which also included fiscal 2019. Until now, Google and parent company Alphabet had folded YouTube’s revenue in with Google. “To provide further insight into our business and the opportunities ahead, we’re now disclosing our revenue on a more granular basis, including for Search, YouTube ads and Cloud,” said Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat in a statement.
YouTube has seen enormous growth, according to the newly-released numbers. In fiscal 2017, YouTube generated $8.15 billion in ad revenue, followed by $11.15 billion fiscal 2018. In other words, YouTube’s ad revenue has nearly doubled over the past two years. Google said that YouTube saw $3.6 billion in revenue in Q4 2018.
The disclosure reveals just how big of a business YouTube is. The ad-supported video site, which was founded in 2005 and sold to Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, has long been viewed as one of Google’s crown jewels, with an enormous share of the ad-supported streaming video market. Netflix, for comparison, had $20.1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2019, almost entirely from subscriptions.
Alphabet also broke out revenue from its Google Cloud unit for the first time, revealing that the division generated $8.9 billion in revenue last year.
Overall, Alphabet hit $161.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2019, including $46.1 billion in Q4.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
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