YouTube continues to grow at a torrid pace, with any sign of pandemic slowdown seemingly behind it.
The Google-owned video platform brought in more than $6 billion in advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2021, according to the quarterly earnings report of parent company Alphabet.
That is up from $4 billion in the same quarter of last year, a 50 percent year-over-year growth rate. YouTube first revealed its advertising revenue a year ago, and since then saw its fortunes wobble somewhat amid the pandemic advertising drawdown. Now, however, the video site is seeing turbocharged growth return.
YouTube is also increasingly playing hardball in distribution negotiations involving its flagship app and its YouTube TV live TV service. This week a dispute with Roku was revealed publicly.
The performance reflects “elevated consumer activity online and broad-based growth in advertiser revenue,” according to Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat, in the company’s quarterly earnings report.
Alphabet overall brought in $55.3 billion in revenue, with net income of $17.9 billion. The company announced that it would repurchase up to $50 billion in stock.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
