YouTube parent company Alphabet inc. has revealed the platform's financials separately for the first time ever.
Alphabet acquired YouTube in 2006 for a cool $1.65bn. The company has not alluded to the actual worth of the platform since.
According to the report, ad revenue on YouTube has risen by 31 per cent year-on-year, bringing in $4.7bn in Q4 2019.
Throughout 2019, YouTube earned over $15bn in ad revenue, which equates to around 10 per cent of Google's overall earnings. In 2018, that number was $11bn, and in 2017 it was $8bn.
During the company earning's call, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat also disclosed a $3bn annual run rate for subscriptions to premium content - YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.
But while YouTube is thriving, Google and Alphabet's overall earnings have fallen short of projections for the last quarter. Total revenue for Alphabet across Q4 came in at $46.1bn when expectations should have seen it hit closer to $46.9bn. Alphabet's shares also dropped 5 per cent after the financials went live, according to Reuters.
How does YouTube compare to Twitch?
Despite being owned by Amazon, Twitch's size and revenue don't come anywhere close to YouTube, and the two are not comparable. In 2019, Twitch's 2019 midyear projection for ad revenue came in at around $300m, a mere fraction of the $15bn YouTube generated last year.
In comparison, Facebook revenue for 2019 surpassed expectations, clocking in at $21bn. While Facebook is still primarily a social network, the company has been working to expand its gaming destination, fb.gg, and has acquired a handful of high-profile content creators in the last year.
