New YouTube boss Neil Mohan has written his first letter to creators, confirming that next year the company aims to continue supporting the community by giving them more tools to make money. He also touched on other priorities for 2023, including how YouTube is looking to experiment with generative AI and multiple formats like shorts and podcasts, among others.
Last month, longtime YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki stepped down and moved into an advisory position at Alphabet. This led to the promotion of Neil Mohan, Chief Product Officer, to the highest position in the company. He is now responsible for leading YouTube, which competes in multiple categories ranging from short-form videos to streaming services.
In the speech, the newly promoted executive cited a study from Oxford Economics indicating that in 2021, more than 2 million innovators earned the equivalent money of a full-time job in several countries. In the past few months, YouTube has started experimenting with different ways for creators to make money, including features related to shopping and ad revenue sharing on short films. The company reported that individual channel subscribers jumped 20% year over year to six million.
The new YouTube boss also highlighted multilingual features including dubbing clips in another language and automatic captioning. He stated that the executives will look forward to meeting more creators this year and offering them more support.
“We’re also listening to creators by ramping up support. In the past year, we’ve more than doubled the number of creators and partners who can get live help through chat or email. More than half of those creators are outside the US, and we’ve also increased the number of creators Our content manager partners greatly to provide strategic advice for success on YouTube.”
Mohan, who was previously the company’s chief product officer, said the video streaming platform is testing offering more features for formats such as the connected TV experience, shorts, and podcasts.
Notably, at a recent event, the company announced that podcasts are coming to YouTube Music with features like background play. Last year, YouTube hinted at its plans when it debuted a new podcast page for US-based users. The platform is now building RSS feed integration for stream creators so they don’t have to upload episodes to the service separately.
After announcing exclusive streaming rights to NFL Sunday Ticket last December, YouTube said the company plans to allow users to watch multiple games at once by rolling out the feature this year.
Google is also keen to grab some market share from short videos from TikTok and Instagram. The letter said the company has grown to 50 billion daily views on short films with the number of channels carrying short videos increasing by 80% year on year. This year, it will introduce a side-by-side format that allows creators to score short films with short clips or other video clips – essentially incentivizing them to create more interactive videos.
Given the recent popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot, multiple platforms are exploring product use cases for generative AI. Microsoft is embedding the technology in Bing search, the Edge browser, and even Windows 11. In response, Google has announced its own solution called Bard. Snapchat introduced a ChatGPT-style bot for its paid user while Meta formed a group looking to build AI-powered features. So YouTube doesn’t want to stay behind — but the company’s new boss has been a little specific in his message.
“Creators will be able to extend the storytelling and elevate the value of their production, from virtually switching costumes to creating a fantasy movie setting through the generative capabilities of AI. We are taking the time to develop these features with thoughtful firewalls. Stay tuned for the coming months as we roll out tools for creators as well as tools Protection to embrace this technology responsibly,” Mohan said in the letter.
He also explained that YouTube is focused on making the platform safe — especially for kids with tools like parental-controlled playlists on Google TV.
In the letter, Mohan explained that YouTube deals with different governments on policy making. The company is embroiled in a case in the US Supreme Court, where plaintiffs alleged that Google was responsible for promoting content on YouTube uploaded before the terrorist attack in Paris in 2015. The case hinges on how the court interprets Section 230, which absolves the platform of liability for user-generated content. .
As competitors integrating AI into their search battle Google as a search giant, the company is looking to YouTube to be a big revenue driver in the future. The video platform already brought in $29.2 billion in ad sales last year. In addition, more than 80 million people pay for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.
“This is a pivotal moment for our industry. We are facing adverse economic challenges and uncertain geopolitical conditions. AI offers amazing creative opportunities but must be balanced with responsible stewardship. Creators, viewers and advertisers have more choices about where they spend their time than ever before,” Mohan said. ever, and platforms like YouTube need to offer a range of formats while investing in policies that protect platforms from real-world harm.”