Google subscriptions rise in Q4 as YouTube pulls in $60B for the year

YouTube subscriptions with alphabets and advertising revenue are increasing. The company on Wednesday said it now has 325 million paid users on Google One and YouTube Premium, up from 300 million three months ago.

YouTube’s advertising revenue rose 9% to $11.38 billion in the fourth quarter, but the latest estimate of experts was $11.84 billion. YouTube’s total revenue, including advertising and subscriptions, came in at $60 billion for the full fiscal year, up 17% from a year earlier.

The company said YouTube is $8 per month, ad-free session It sees strong traction, but didn’t cite any numbers. It added that YouTube Premium also saw significant growth.

Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is planning to meet subscriptions, mainly to take advantage of the growing user base on YouTube TV. “We will soon introduce new plans for YouTube TV, which bring more choice and flexibility to subscribers with more than 10 packages,” he said.

YouTube Shorts drew 200 billion daily views in the quarter, the same as last year, but in some countries, short video ads earn more than hourly ads, the company said. Photsi also highlighted podcasts as a growing format, with viewers watching 700 million hours of podcasts from their TVs in October.

YouTube said its AI features are proving successful, with more than 1 million channels using them AI design equipment. The company said 20 million consumers used its Gemini-enabled device in December.