YouTube's Advertising Revenue Reaches 18 Trillion Won Last Year... First Earnings Disclosure

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] YouTube, the world's largest video sharing platform, reportedly earned 18 trillion won from advertising last year.

According to CNBC and other sources on the 3rd (local time), Google's parent company Alphabet announced its Q4 earnings for last year and disclosed YouTube's advertising revenue for the first time. YouTube's advertising revenue for last year was $15.15 billion (approximately 18 trillion won), marking a 36% increase compared to the previous year. Compared to 2017, it increased by 86%. In Q4 alone, YouTube's advertising revenue was $4.72 billion.

Revenue growth was driven by brand advertisements and responsive ads attached to product review videos that allow viewers to purchase the product immediately by clicking. Market research firm eMarketer stated, "YouTube is growing very rapidly, and its revenue was higher than we had estimated." Ruth Porat, Alphabet's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), said that most of YouTube's advertising revenue goes to creators but did not disclose specific figures.

Additionally, non-advertising revenue such as subscription fees earned $3 billion in Q4 alone last year.

Until now, Alphabet has reported earnings by categorizing areas other than Google's advertising as "Other." However, Sundar Pichai, Alphabet's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), announced that going forward, they will disclose detailed earnings by business segments such as Search, YouTube, and Cloud. CEO Pichai also added that YouTube has over 20 million paid subscribers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.