More than 2 billion people log on to YouTube every month as the video-streaming site flourishes despite recent scandals.
- The world’s biggest video site YouTube was at 1.8 billion viewers a year ago
- It has now crossed a milestone which was ‘just out of reach’, according to CEO
- The site also clocked more more hours of streaming to TV sets than ever before
- This comes after the parent company Alphabet’s share prices plunged following the tech giant reported slowing revenue growth
Published: 12:55 BST, 3 May 2019 | By Victoria Bell For Mailonline
YouTube has reported that it now has more than two billion people logging into their accounts on the site every month, despite the site being embroiled in several controversies.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that YouTube at the same time last year, there were 200 million less users on the site every month. The company made the announcements yesterday at a presentation to advertisers in New York, an event thrown by media companies to drum up advertiser interest.
The news comes after share prices of Google parent company Alphabet plunged following the tech giant’s announcement of slowing revenue growth as advertisers pulled from the video-streaming site.
Youtube now has now reached two billion users logged in every month despite recent controversies revolving around harmful and disturbing content. The Google-owned company was at 1.8 billion viewers a year ago but has now crossed the milestone.
The company said that the streaming site also clocked more more hours streaming to TV sets than before. Viewers spend 250 million hours watching YouTube on TV screens every day, up from 180 million hours in the middle of last year. Alphabet did not reveal performance stats for YouTube, until they provided the new stats about its video giant yesterday.
Pichai also touted YouTube’s identity as an educational hub in the earnings call — in addition to serving as an entertainment source. ‘YouTube is a place where we see users not only come for entertainment, they come to find information. They’re coming to learn about things. They’re coming to discover research,’ he said.
This raised eyebrows considering YouTube’s recent struggle to counter conspiracy theory videos posted and promoted on the site. On Monday, Alphabet’s chief financial officer said that a ‘deceleration’ in clicks on its YouTube unit, a main driver for its ad revenue, was partially to blame.
YouTube has recently come under fire amid public concern that it does not effectively control videos containing ‘harmful content’ posted on the site. They have faced continued pressure from advertisers to tighten regulations so that they do not appear to be sponsoring adult or offensive content. Major brands have stopped advertising on YouTube following revelations that some adverts were being run next to terrorist content or disturbing videos.
Google reported a quarterly net income of £5.2 billion ($6.7bn) last night, down from £7.2 billion ($9.4bn) a year ago. Advertising revenue, a key moneymaker for Google, grew by 15 per cent to $30.7 billion but failed to meet the expectations of investors.
Advertising revenue, a key moneymaker for Google, grew by 15 per cent to $30.7 billion (£23bn) but still failed to meet the investors’ expectations.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that he was leaving the board of the tech giant’s parent firm Alphabet later this year after the historically poor day for Alphabet. Yesterday Youtube confirmed a significant shift of its original programming strategy, announcing all of its originals will now get a run on the free, ad-supported side of the fence.
How are tech firms targeting hate speech?
According to recent EU figures, Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube have greatly accelerated their removals of online hate speech. Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube signed a code of conduct with the EU in May 2016 to review most complaints within a 24-hour timeframe. Now, the firms review over two thirds of complaints within 24 hours.
Of the hate speech flagged to the companies, almost half of it was found on Facebook, the figures show, while 24 percent was on YouTube and 26 percent on Twitter.
The most common ground for hatred identified by the Commission was ethnic origins, followed by anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia, including hatred against migrants and refugees.
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