YouTube’s quarterly ad revenues top $10bn for the first time in Q4 2024

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YouTube’s quarterly subscription and advertising revenues surpassed $10 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Revenue from YouTube ads jumped 13.8% YoY in Q4 2024 to $10.47 billion from $9.2 billion, Google parent Alphabet Inc. announced Tuesday (February 4).

The figure topped Wall Street analyst’s consensus estimate of $10.23 billion.

Alphabet does not typically disclose YouTube subscription revenue separately in its earnings reports, as it is included under the broader “Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices” category. Revenue from this segment rose 7.78% YoY to $11.63 billion in the quarter.

Overall, revenue from Google Services — which includes products like YouTube Music and Premium — surged 10% to $84.1 billion from $76.31 billion in Q4 2023. As a result, operating income from these services climbed 22.8% to $32.8 billion from $26.7 billion a year earlier.

Total revenues in Q4 jumped 12% YoY to $96.5 billion from $86.31 billion, slightly falling short of the $96.56 billion estimate by Wall Street analysts. Net income for the quarter grew 28% to $26.54 billion from $20.69 billion a year prior, with earnings per share increasing 31% YoY to $2.15.

For the full year 2024, Alphabet’s net income jumped 35.7% YoY to $100.12 billion, topping analysts’ $99.62 billion consensus estimate, compiled by FactSet. Revenue for the full year also climbed 13.9% YoY to $350.02 billion, missing the $350.49 billion FactSet estimate.

“we expect to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025.”

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet

Alphabet shares slumped nearly 7% overnight following the earnings release, as traders digested the company’s revenue miss. GOOG shares were hovering around $194 in pre-market trading, having closed at $207.71 the day before.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai largely attributed the company’s performance to “our leadership in AI and momentum across the business.”

“We are building, testing, and launching products and models faster than ever, and making significant progress in compute and driving efficiencies,” Pichai said.

“Our results show the power of our differentiated full-stack approach to AI innovation and the continued strength of our core businesses. We are confident about the opportunities ahead, and to accelerate our progress, we expect to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025,” the executive added.

Google has rolled out a wave of new features across its services over the past year. In 2024, YouTube Music unveiled new tools including collaborative playlists and fan badges. It also launched a feature allowing users to search for songs by humming, singing, or playing a tune directly into the app, taking on Apples Shazam.

During an earnings call on Tuesday, Pichai said, “The company is in a great rhythm and cadence — building, testing and launching products faster than ever before. This is translating into product usage, revenue growth and results.”

Speaking about YouTube’s performance, Pichai said Alphabet’s investments in the platform are paying off. “We integrated podcasts into the core YouTube experience, particularly with video. We are now the most frequently used service for consuming podcasts in the US, according to a recent Edison report. This success reflects our long-term approach of investing in emerging trends, from mobile to the living room.”

Pichai also noted that YouTube now has over 250,000 creators on its Shopping affiliate program in the US and Korea alone. YouTube Shopping is a feature that Google launched in 2022 with e-commerce platform Shopify that is similar to the shopping service being offered by TikTok.

The Google boss said, “We expanded YouTube Shopping at the end of last year to three additional countries, allowing even more creators to share their favorite products with fans and grow their businesses.”

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