Watcheski YouTube CEO Resigns... "Successor is Neil Mohan"

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Susan Wojcicki, who has led YouTube for nine years, announced her intention to step down as CEO of YouTube.

On the 16th (local time), Wojcicki stated on YouTube's official blog, "Having spent nearly 25 years here (at Google), today I have decided to step down from my role as head of YouTube." She added, "I have decided to start a new chapter focusing on my family, health, and personal projects, which I am passionate about."

Wojcicki said, "I have agreed with Sundar Pichai (Alphabet CEO) to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet in the long term," adding, "Through this, I will be able to offer my diverse experience to Google and Alphabet companies."

Neil Mohan, Chief Product Officer (CPO), has been appointed as Wojcicki's successor. She said, "Mohan is well-suited to be the new leader of YouTube," and "I have agreed to serve as an advisor to Alphabet to assist him."

Wojcicki was once a competitor with Sundar Pichai for the Google CEO position. However, when Larry Page appointed Pichai as Google CEO, it is known that he appointed Wojcicki as YouTube CEO to pave the way for his successor.

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 and served as Senior Vice President in charge of product management and advertising for 14 years.

She is also known as a figure involved since the founding of the company by Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. At that time, Wojcicki, who was working in Intel's marketing department, rented a garage space for $1,700 per month to Page, who was pursuing his doctoral studies at Stanford University, to start his business.

The year after the founding, Wojcicki was hired as Google's 16th employee and began working as the company's first marketing manager. Later, she became YouTube CEO in 2014 and had a significant impact on growing YouTube into the world's largest video platform. It is also known that before becoming YouTube CEO, Wojcicki considered moving to Tesla as Elon Musk's second-in-command.

Meanwhile, YouTube's growth has recently stalled as it faces competition from China's video-sharing platform TikTok. In the last quarter, YouTube's advertising revenue was $7.96 billion, down 8% compared to the same period last year.

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