YouTube reports 49% growth in first-quarter ad revenue

In the first quarter of this year, YouTube made $6 billion from advertising, almost half of what it did last year and up 49% year-over-year in the first quarter . This is due to the pandemic shift to digital, but also because more and more viewers are watching YouTube on their TV screens . This makes it easier for ads on linear TV to move to YouTube.

This week, the tech giants reported quarterly earnings . TikTok was strong, Facebook’s video numbers were solid , and Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) “earnings report” showed the health of YouTube , which was generally satisfactory.

YouTube has 2 billion logged-in users per month, and viewers collectively watch more than 1 billion hours per day. That's why its ad revenue reached $6 billion in the first quarter of 2021, a year-over-year increase of 49%. This is a good performance , especially considering that the first quarter of last year was not severely affected by the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic may have cut into the advertising budgets of many companies, but digital is the winner in this situation. Brands have been moving their ads from TV to the internet in order to save money and make their ads more targeted . But then, competition among advertisers on YouTube has also made ads more expensive.

In early March, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan revealed another trend where YouTube is making money from what used to be linear TV ads .

"While the majority of content on our platform is still consumed on mobile devices, the fastest growing medium is the TV screen . " Mohan also added an infographic with trends in the different genres of YouTube videos watched on TV. At least half of the year-over-year growth was in the music, education, and humor categories.

This is precisely the rationale behind the shift of advertising dollars to the digital realm, something that Phillip Schindler, Google's head of search, also stressed when announcing its current financial results.

In the future, YouTube is preparing to further focus on e-commerce opportunities. It is understood that the so-called action ads, which are " added " banner calls to action to the videos being watched, have performed very well . However, Alphabet representatives revealed that YouTube is looking forward to further development in the field of product discovery.

The epidemic has promoted digital development, and e-commerce has been combined with video content. Many video platforms have expanded into the e-commerce field to seek new economic growth points.

Online Shopping

E-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce