YouTube generating $77m in ad revenue daily

The company posted strong figures for YouTube ad revenues, which generated $7bn in Q2, an 83.7% jump from the $3.8bn reported in the same period last year, while a total of $13bn in ad revenues was returned in the first half of this year. The figure brings advertising turnover to $19.77bn in the past 12 months, a 30.5% jump from the equivalent figure in 2019. The amount converts to an impressive $77m a day.

The figure excludes subscription revenue generated from subscribers on YouTube Music and YouTube Premium. Alphabet did not release any data about the latest subscribers on YouTube Music. However, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he was “pleased with the progress we are making with YouTube subscription products across music, premium and YouTube TV.”

The last figure shared by YouTube was 30 million music and premium subscribers globally in October 2020. In June, a report by Midia Research claimed that YouTube Music and Google accounted for an 8% stake of the global music subscription market at the end of March 2021. Google and YouTube now boast 63 million total music subscribers globally, according to the report.

YouTube’s ad revenue is important for the music industry. Based on the company's past two financial years, the platform has paid out approximately 20% of its total advertising turnover to creators. Pichai said the platform’s growth was partly due to more money being paid “to YouTube creators and partners than in any quarter in our history.”

Last month, YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, said the service had paid the music industry more than $4bn in the previous 12 months. He also suggested that both premium music and user-generated content on YouTube are responsible for growing and creating significant value for the music industry.

Meanwhile, recent research suggests that music videos account for more than 20% of all views on the platform. The company’s new short-form video app YouTube Shorts, which was recently expanded globally, is generating 15 billion views every day.

Download the full Alphabet report below (PDF).