YouTube: share of Google revenues 2017-2021

In 2021, YouTube's advertising revenue accounted for approximately 11.2 percent of Google's total revenue. That year, the video platform's annual ad revenues amounted to 28.84 billion U.S. dollars, up from 19.77 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year.

YouTube creators

Video content creators on YouTube have been evolving with the platform since its creation. In 2020, it was estimated that YouTube supported over 800 thousand jobs worldwide, almost half of which referred to creators located in the United States. Apart from sharing a portion of YouTube advertising revenues, the most popular video creators can decide to license their existing content libraries for a limited amount of time in exchange for their advertising revenues. As YouTube ranked among the leading ad-selling companies worldwide in 2021, the recent success of financing companies focusing on user-generated video content does not come as a surprise.

Digital video ads

In 2021, global spending for online video advertisement surpassed 61 million U.S. dollars and is expected to reach approximately 90 million U.S. dollars by 2024. Video ads can engage users across multiple devices, with a 2021 survey of app developers worldwide seeing over 40 percent of respondents considering full-screen videos the most effective ad format to acquire new app users.