Subscription and ad revenue on Alphabet-owned YouTube is growing. The company said Wednesday it now has 325 million paying users on Google One and YouTube Premium, up from 300 million three months earlier.
YouTube reported ad revenue rose 9% to $11.38 billion in the fourth quarter, but missed analysts’ average estimate of $11.84 billion. YouTube’s total revenue, including advertising and subscriptions, reached $60 billion for the full financial year, up 17% from the previous year.
The company said YouTube’s $8 per month ad-free premium tier is seeing strong growth, but didn’t provide any numbers. He added that YouTube Premium also saw strong growth.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to expand its subscription offerings, particularly to take advantage of YouTube TV’s growing user base. “We will soon be launching new YouTube TV plans that will bring more choice and flexibility to subscribers with more than 10 genre-specific packages,” he said.
YouTube Shorts had 200 billion average daily views in the quarter, the same as last year, but in some countries ads on short videos earn more per hour than in-stream ads, the company said. Pichai also highlighted podcasts as a growing format, with viewers watching 700 million hours of podcasts from their TVs in October.
YouTube says its AI features are seeing traction, with more than 1 million channels using its AI creation tools. The company said 20 million consumers used its Gemini-powered content discovery tool in December.