Alphabet-owned YouTube reported 325 million paying users across Google One and YouTube Premium, up from 300 million three months earlier.
In the fourth quarter, YouTube’s ad revenue rose 9% to $11.38 billion, below analysts’ average estimate of $11.84 billion. For the full year, total revenue including ads and subscriptions reached $60 billion, a 17% increase from the previous year.
The $8-per-month ad-free YouTube Premium tier saw strong traction. YouTube Premium overall experienced strong growth.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated plans to expand subscription offerings, particularly to leverage the growing YouTube TV user base. “We’ll soon launch new YouTube TV plans, bringing more choice and flexibility to subscribers with over 10 genre-specific packages,” he said.
YouTube Shorts averaged 200 billion daily views in the quarter, unchanged from the prior year. In some countries, ads on short-form videos generate more revenue per hour than in-stream ads.
Podcasts emerged as a growing format, with viewers watching 700 million hours from TVs in October. More than 1 million channels use YouTube’s AI creation tools. In December, 20 million consumers used the Gemini-powered content discovery tool.
