Advertising sales revenue for Google’s YouTube increased 10.3% YoY to $8.9 billion in Q1, the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit-percentage growth.
Reporting earnings on the day following the 20th anniversary of the first-ever YouTube video upload, the performance of the video platform unit helped drive a 12% overall revenue spike for parent company Alphabet, to $90.23 billion. Net profit for the technology giant was up a whopping 46% to $34.54 billion.
Alphabet easily beat equity analysts’ consensus forecasts for most benchmarks during the three-month period ending March 31. However, YouTube fell just shy of projections for $8.97 billion in revenue.
The YouTube ad sales figure does not include subscription revenue derived through virtual pay TV service YouTube TV and YouTube Premium. The performance came after YouTube ad sales reached a record $10.5 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. According to equity research company MoffettNathanson, YouTube will surpass Disney this year as the world’s largest media company in terms of annual revenue.
Usage of YouTube in the American living room has exploded over the last several years, with the connected TV consumption of the platform accounting for an industry-leading 12% of all TV viewing in March, according to Nielsen.
With 20 million videos now being uploaded to the platform every day, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai declared during Thursday’s earnings call, “TV is now the primary device for YouTube in the U.S.”
Can YouTube keep up the pace?
Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said it’s “too early to comment” when asked if economic turbulence caused by the Trump Administration trade policies will disrupt ad sales meaningfully in the second quarter. Schindler also conceded, “We’re not immune to the macro environment” and that trade disruption could “cause a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025, primarily from APAC-based retailers.”
YouTube hasn’t seen a quarterly decline in its ad sales business since the first quarter of 2023, when revenue dropped 2.6% to $6.87 billion – marking a third consecutive quarter of decline. Notably, following that quarter, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki passed the torch to current chief executive Neal Mohan.