‘YouTube to trial monetisation’
NEW DELHI: YouTube will introduce monetisation features on YouTube in India, which may then be taken to other countries, Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet, which owns YouTube, said during the company’s Q4 2021 earnings call late on Tuesday.
“I think all the commerce experiences we are thinking about in YouTube form a whole additional layer of opportunity. Again, it’s another area where it all feels very early to me. We are seeing tremendous traction in YouTube across newer areas, be it podcast, gaming, learning, or sports. So across all these areas, we’ll kind of take a vertical-specific look and see how we can support creators better,” Pichai said.
“When I look at YouTube in India, some of the commerce ideas we talked about earlier, you may see us first stride in India, because we can get quicker feedback (and have a) very dynamic youthful population. So we’ll do it there and then roll it out globally. So we are constantly looking for opportunities like that,” Pichai said.
YouTube has already expanded to offer Shorts to capture a share of the increasing short-video market. YouTube Shorts came on the back of TikTok’s popularity and was launched in September 2020.
Pichai also said that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may be an area that YouTube might be looking into. He cited a letter by
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on January 25, in which she said, “We’re focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things such as NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube.”
Features such as Super Chat and memberships for YouTube channels are at early stages now, but are showing signs of growth, Pichai said. Google intends to support the new generation of the internet, he said.
Alphabet reported a record annual revenue of $257 billion, up by 41% year-on-year (y-o-y), on February 1, marking the first time that the company has crossed the $200 billion mark in yearly revenue.