AI: Google YouTube now primed for TV. RTZ #629

...Google's second most traffic source behind Search takes an AI bow

Long time readers know I’ve been arguing that Google remains very well positioned vs other big tech companies in this AI Tech Wave. And two core reasons is that Google (and parent company Alphabet) continue to house the best AI technologies out there from Gemini, DeepMind, Waymo, and YouTube. Yes, YouTube.

Which if you noticed in the top ten web traffic sites in the world for January 2025 I discussed yesterday, comes in at no. 2 behind Google.com, with 20% share vs 29%+ for the latter.

That gives Google almost half the internet traffic share, vs 10% to Meta for the next three, and 2.6% to OpenAI at no. 6 spot.

I’ve talked a lot also about YouTube, along with Google Cloud being prime assets for Google to consider minority Spinoffs, to enhance shareholder value in the Alphabet/Google public mother ships.

The reason I’m talking about YouTube again today, is they’re crossing a long awaited milestone, where there’s more YouTube being watched on our TVs than on mobile devices.

The Hollywood Reporter explains in “YouTube Surprise: CEO Says TV Overtakes Mobile as “Primary Device” for Viewing”:

“YouTube CEO Neal Mohan released his annual letter Tuesday morning, outlining his priorities for the video platform.”

“If there was any doubt before, this seals it: YouTube is in the TV business.”

“According to Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, TV screens have officially overtaken mobile as the “primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.” In other words, more people are watching YouTube on TV sets than any other device, at least here in the U.S.”

“It is, as Mohan writes in his annual letter from the CEO, an indication that “YouTube is the new television.”

And YouTube is doing new stuff with the old:

“But the ‘new’ television doesn’t look like the ‘old’ television,” Mohan writes. “It’s interactive and includes things like Shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams, right alongside the sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love.”

“YouTube has consistently dominated Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report, handily topping Netflix as the most-watched streaming video platform. And TV has long been a priority for YouTube. In last year’s letter, Mohan noted that the YouTube TV vMVPD passed 8 million subscribers, and that the company was investing in the platform.”

“The company unveiled sweeping changes to its TV app experience last year.”

The core YouTube themes are notable for this year, (1) YouTube being the ‘epicenter of culture’, (2) “YouTubers’ being the ‘startups’ of Hollywood, and (3) YouTube ‘being the new television’:

“In a section titled “YouTube will remain the epicenter of culture,” he noted that 45 million Americans watched election-related content on election day last year, and he noted the success of videos like Joe Rogan’s interview with President Trump and the SNL sketch with Kamala Harris on the platform.”

“From elections to the Olympics to Coachella to the Super Bowl and the Cricket World Cup, the world’s biggest moments play out on YouTube,” Mohan writes, adding that the company also plans to “roll out more tools to support podcasters, improve monetization for creators, and make it even easier to discover podcasts” this year.”

And YouTube is just getting started with AI technologies around the service, not just for mainstream viewers, but important stakeholders like their advertisers and creators:

“But YouTube is also working to bring more AI tools to creators, and despite early hype around AI image and video generation products (YouTube is developing them too), Mohan suggests that YouTube creators are finding simpler, practical tools to be more helpful.”

“As impressive as the generative models are, creators tell us they’re most excited about the ways AI can help with their bread-and-butter production. That’s why we’re investing in tools to help them in the everyday work of creation, like coming up with a new video idea, title or thumbnail,” Mohan writes. “We’re also using AI to help creators find new audiences. For videos with dubbed audio, more than 40% of the total watch time comes from viewers choosing to listen in a dubbed language. Last year we launched auto dubbing, which helps creators translate their videos into multiple languages with a touch of a button. Later this month, we’ll make auto dubbing available for all creators in the YouTube Partner Program. We’ll continue to make improvements here and expand to more languages throughout the year.”

I’d recommend reading the full Neal Mohan annual letter here. It builds on his 2024 plans discussed last year.

Of course online video is also important for Meta, Netflix and TikTok in the US. It’s a KEY source of training and inference data as AI Scales over the next few years.

While the world awaits what happens to US TikTok, a unit of China’s Bytedance, and a chess piece in the epic geopolitical game underway between the US and China ‘threading the needle’ on tech, AI and national security (and pride), YouTube is continuing to chip away at key AI opportunities in this AI Tech Wave.

And that’s something that should be closely watched. Stay tuned.

(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)