Not paying for YouTube Premium? Google will do whatever it takes to get you started
The financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023 show that the paid version of YouTube is a real goldmine for Google.
Although YouTube is still available for free and this probably won’t change anytime soon, it’s hard not to get the impression that using the website has become a bit more burdensome than before. All this, of course, is due to advertising, which is becoming more and more ubiquitous and therefore more and more burdensome for content recipients. But there is a method to all this – Google simply wants us all to switch to paid and ad-free YouTube Premium.
Google wants you to pay for YouTube Premium
The Alphabet holding, which includes all Google-related companies and products, has just published its financial report for the last quarter of 2023. It shows, among other things, that paid YouTube subscriptions are responsible for as much as $15 billion in Google’s annual revenues. This means a five-fold increase compared to 2019.
YouTube Premium is the most frequently purchased subscription by customers from all over the world, followed by services such as YouTube Music, YouTube TV and Google One.
“YouTube is a key driver of our subscription revenue. YouTube Music and Premium, available in over 100 countries and regions, are really popular.” – says Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet.
Don’t pay for YouTube? Google makes money from ads anyway
It’s hard not to notice that recently there are much more ads on YouTube, and often those that cannot be skipped, than before. On the one hand, this is an effective motivator for regular users to finally upgrade to a YouTube Premium subscription. On the other hand, Google, thanks to the increasing number of ads, earns more and more money from them.
One way or another, but business has to be good, and Alphabet’s CEO openly says that YouTube Premium users are a bigger source of revenue for his company than is the case with people who only watch ads because they still don’t pay for the ability to watch YouTube in the Premium version (i.e. without ads).
“Premium users provide more value to our partners and YouTube than even ad-supported users. On average, each additional Premium sign-up increases earnings for creators, music and media partners, and YouTube itself.” – says Sundar Pichai.
