The departure of Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
The executive, who will be succeeded by Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, has led the Google-owned video platform since 2014.
Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, announced on Thursday that she is leaving her position after nine years in charge of the Google-owned business.
Wojcicki informed the staff of her impending departure and stated that she was doing so to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.” Neal Mohan, a close ally of Wojcicki’s and most recently YouTube’s chief product officer, will take over as svp and head of YouTube in her place.
Wojcicki joined the Larry Page and Sergey Brin-founded company as its 16th employee in 1999 with the goal of expanding its analytics and advertising businesses. Following Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006, Wojcicki was appointed CEO of the video platform in 2014.
Through the company’s extensive ad revenue-sharing program, the YouTube Partner Program, and as one of the top platforms for digital creators to monetize their work, YouTube has developed into a significant business for Google during her tenure. Due to TikTok’s fierce competition, YouTube has developed its own short-form video service, Shorts, which receives an average of 50 billion views per day and has a revenue-sharing program for creators that just debuted this month.
Although the company has experienced a slowdown from its rapid pandemic growth in recent quarters due to a weakening ad market, YouTube has consistently generated quarterly ad revenue above $7 billion over the past year as a platform. The platform’s subscription business for YouTube TV and YouTube Music Premium, the latter of which recently won distribution rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket — has also been seen as building “great momentum,” as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted in a Feb. 2 earnings call.
In a separate note to creators shared publicly on Thursday, Wojcicki offered her praise to Mohan and assured creators that the executive “understands this community and what you need today, tomorrow, and in the future better than anyone.”
She also acknowledged the “tough and candid” feedback she received from the creator community, especially around the platform’s handling of content moderation for videos containing misinformation, extremist propaganda, and inappropriate content, among other issues.
“Your stories of perseverance, creativity, and inspiration were a daily source of motivation and inspired me to be an advocate and steward for this community you all created. It was a constant highlight of my job to sit down with you, hear how you were using the platform, and listen to feedback. Sometimes what you said was tough and candid, but it was important for me and the wider YouTube team to listen and do better,” she said.
Wojcicki identified Shorts, podcasting, streaming, and subscriptions as key growth areas for YouTube in her analysis of the site’s future. She wrote, “I’m still as convinced that YouTube’s best days are ahead of it as I was when I started nine years ago. You are all in good hands with Neal and the rest of our outstanding staff, I can assure you of that.
In order to aid in the transition, Wojcicki announced she would take on an advisory role at YouTube and its parent company Google. Her departure comes in the wake of that of another seasoned executive, Robert Kyncl, a former chief business officer of YouTube, who left in October to take the helm of the Warner Music Group.
The staff note from Wojcicki is below.
Hi YouTubers,
Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.
It would be one of the best decisions of my life.
Over the years, I’ve worn many hats and done so many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google’s first Video and Book search, as well as early parts of AdSense’s creation, worked on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, served as SVP of Ads, and for the last nine years, the CEO of YouTube. I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people’s lives around the world: finding information, telling stories, and supporting creators, artists, and small businesses. I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved. It’s been exhilarating, meaningful, and all-consuming.
Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.
The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015. Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.
With all, we’re doing across Shorts, streaming, and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us.
For all the YouTubers I’ve had the privilege to work with, you have done so much to make this platform better over the years. You created the largest creative economy the world has ever seen, enabled entirely new forms of art and storytelling, and supported millions of creators and artists to reach new audiences—all while investing in responsible growth so that this brilliant community of creators, artists, viewers, and advertisers could not only co-exist but thrive together. Thank you!
As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neal and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies. It’s an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.
And beyond that, I’ll still be around, so I’ll have a chance to thank the thousands of people from all across the company and the world who I’ve worked with and learned from. But for now, I want to thank Sundar for his leadership, support, and vision over the years. I also want to thank Larry and Sergey for inviting me on what has truly been the adventure of a lifetime. I always dreamed of working for a company with a mission that could change the world for the better. Thanks to you and your vision, I got the chance to live that dream. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of it, and I’m excited for what’s next.
Thank you for everything,
Susan