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YouTube is so huge and works so well, imagine what it could be if it were an independent media company. Today, YouTube has so many elements that could be improved, so many opportunities to shape the future of TV, but it won’t realize any of it with its current pace of innovation.
The problem seems to be its parent company, Alphabet. YouTube is a revenue machine that’s deeply intertwined with Google. Nearly 20 years ago, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion and just earned more than $36 billion from the platform in 2024. Google is being lazy.
YouTube commands the largest share of TV viewing in the U.S., claiming more than 10.4% of daily viewing, but has very little TV brand presence compared to Netflix, Amazon or Disney. It also has hardly any recent tech innovations of note, and almost none of the “total customer ownership” of Amazon despite the fact that it has billions of logged in profiles and is connected to everything (even my grill).
As an independent entity, YouTube wouldn’t have to protect or pander to the wider Google network. It could focus on developing standards to push TV advertising forward — something it’s not really doing today but did in the past. Consider the incredible value of the skip button alone.
Personalized Ad Experiences And Interactive Ads
Hulu has the first patent for asking users which type of ad experience users want to see and then delivering it later. Of course, it didn’t catch on because users don’t