Google has announced that YouTube has amassed over 100 million paid users for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, marking a significant increase from the 80 million reported in November 2022.
This information was revealed during the company’s Q4 2023 earnings call, where CEO Sundar Pichai noted that Google’s subscription business, including YouTube’s premium services, has now exceeded $15 billion annually.
YouTube’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, stated that premium users contribute greater value to its partners than ad-supported users. He emphasized that each new Premium sign-up enhances revenue for creators, music and media partners, and YouTube itself.
YouTube Music initially launched in 2015, offering a $9.99 per month Red subscription for ad-free viewing and access to Play Music. This service was rebranded as YouTube Premium in 2018.
Over the past year, YouTube has implemented policies against ad blockers, asserting that they breach the platform’s terms of service. The platform has also experimented with user charges for viewing videos in high resolution or displaying multiple non-skippable ads.
On a different note, the introduction of features like mini-games and enhanced bitrate videos aims to boost the appeal of the Premium version for users. The Premium subscription has extended its reach to over 100 countries, with expansions into ten additional ones in December 2023.
YouTube constitutes a substantial portion of Google’s business, yielding $9.2 billion in Q4 2023, a considerable jump from the previous year’s $8 billion for the same period.
