YouTube's ad revenue soars by 20% to $8.1 billion in Q1 2024

Delhi: On Thursday, YouTube reported a significant increase in its advertising revenue for Q1 2024, reaching $8.1 billion, up 20% from $6.7 billion in the same quarter the previous year. 

This growth in advertising revenue was attributed by Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler to strong watchtime growth, innovations in user and advertiser experiences, and a shift in brand advertising budgets from linear TV to YouTube. 

He also emphasised that YouTube remains a unique platform for advertisers to reach audiences unavailable elsewhere.

During the earnings call, YouTube's parent company Alphabet reported an overall revenue of $80.5 billion with a net income of $23.6 billion. The majority of this revenue still comes from Google Search, despite significant contributions from other segments.

Google's total ad sales surged to $61.66 billion, marking an increase from $54.55 billion a year ago. 

Google Cloud saw robust growth, generating $9.57 billion in revenue, marking a 28% increase from the previous year's $7.45 billion. It now accounts for nearly 12% of Google's total revenue, delivering $900 million in operating income during the quarter.

YouTube CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the importance of subscriptions, noting that YouTube Premium and Music now boast over 100 million subscribers, and YouTube TV has reached 8 million subscribers. 

The broader "Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices" segment grew to $8.7 billion for the quarter, largely driven by YouTube's performance. 

CFO Ruth Porat noted a rise in the cost of revenues by 10% to $20.7 billion, primarily due to content acquisition costs associated with YouTube. This increase also affected subscription revenues, which saw a downturn in Q1 compared to Q4, influenced by the timing of NFL Sunday Ticket games.

Additionally, the Google One offering, which combines cloud storage, AI capabilities, and other Google features in a single shareable plan, has surpassed 100 million paid subscribers.