Susan Wojcicki, the CEO, announced her resignation on Thursday. Neal Mohan, chief product officer, will assume control as YouTube’s new senior vice president and CEO.
Susan Wojcicki wrote in a blog post, “Today, after almost 25 years here, I’ve decided to stand down from my position as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.
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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Thursday that she’s stepping down.
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Neal Mohan, chief product officer, will take the lead as the senior vice president and new head of YouTube.
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Wojcicki said she agreed with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet.
Wojcicki, 54, was became CEO of YouTube in 2014.
She continued by saying that she will keep meeting with creators and coaching members of YouTube teams.
According to Wojcicki, she and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, decided to take on an advising role for both Google and Alphabet in the long run. As a result, she stated, “I will be able to draw on my various experiences from the past to offer advise and assistance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet firms.
We have an amazing leadership team in place at YouTube, she said, so I feel like I can do this at this moment. “Building a fantastic leadership team was one of my top priorities when I joined YouTube nine years ago.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who Wojcicki let to work out of her Menlo Park, California, home when she founded Google, are people she has known for a very long time. She rented the garage space to Page and Brin for $1,700 per month. Wojcicki was employed by Intel at the time in the marketing division.
She pushed for the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006.
Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 and spent 14 years overseeing the development of the company’s analytics and advertising products. In recent years, YouTube has increased its physical presence in cities like New York and in close proximity to its San Bruno, California, headquarters.
She managed the company’s quick growth to become the biggest video platform in the world during her time there. According to the business, YouTube today has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users and receives more than 500 hours of new content every minute.
The corporation found it difficult to control the rapid growth. In 2019, Google and YouTube were ordered to pay $170 million to resolve allegations that the video platform had broken rules protecting the privacy of children. Together with the Covid-19 epidemic and the 2020 elections, Wojcicki faced criticism for the platform’s inability to thwart misinformation and disinformation efforts.
Who will be the new CEO of YouTube?
In her blog post, Wojcicki stated that she worked with Mohan, the new head of YouTube, for nearly 15 years during her career, “first when he joined Google with the DoubleClick purchase in 2007 and as his role developed to become SVP of Display and Video Advertising.”
Due to the growth of social media, particularly TikTok, which it has been attempting to compete with through its short-form video platform Shorts, YouTube has come under fire in recent years. In the fourth quarter, YouTube brought in $7.96 billion in advertising income, which was below expert projections and down 8% from the year before.