Watch out world, YouTube paying subscribers exceeds 20 million

Watch out world, YouTube paying subscribers exceeds 20 million

Although it’s still early days, YouTube paying subscribers is showing major growth potential.

YouTube has officially exceeded 20 million paying subscribers, parent company Google revealed in a report on the service’s revenue statistics.

The subscriber pool is a combination of YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium. YouTube TV also has 2 million subscribers in the U.S.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, shared the details on YouTube’s Q4 earnings call on Monday- a first for the company.

According to Pichai, YouTube subscribers gave the platform a $3 billion annual run rate in Q4 2019 for subscriptions and other non-advertising related revenue.

The announcement serves as a signal to investors that YouTube believes it has the potential to boost subscription-service revenue. At the moment, YouTube’s 22 million paying subscribers represents just 1% of the service’s total 2 billion monthly visitors, which Pichai feels presents “significantly more room” to grow YouTube’s overall revenue haul.

What a time to subscribe!

As Variety reports, “YouTube had $15.15 billion in ad revenue for 2019, up 36% from the year prior, according to Alphabet. For Q4 2019, YouTube advertising sales were $4.72 billion, a 31% year-over-year increase. YouTube’s ad revenue in 2019 was close to double over the prior two years (vs. 2017 ad revenue of $8.15 billion).”

So, what are you paying for? Here’s a breakdown of YouTube’s subscription services:

YouTube Premium– $11.99 per month in the U.S.- provides ad-free access to all videos (including music), offline and background playback and early access to YouTube Originals.

YouTube Music– $9.99 per month- for access to songs and music videos without ads (and offline access).

YouTube TV– $50 per month (after a rate hike last year) (Over R600)- is available only in the U.S. (for now) and offers more than 70 live channels, including local stations, plus cloud-based DVR and other features.

YouTube paying subscribers is on the rise, will it continue upwards or crash and burn?

Sourced