Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
When Google bought YouTube in 2006, the young site was unprofitable. It was already a cultural phenomenon, with viral videos consumed millions of times daily, but it didn’t make any money. It wasn’t until 2009 that Google first profited from its $1.65 billion investment in the video-sharing site. Google achieved this through one singular revenue stream: advertisements.
Since 2009, Google has continued to mostly depend on ad revenue to keep YouTube afloat. The introduction of YouTube Premium — a paid subscription that provides ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music — bolsters revenue a bit but is still a drop in the bucket compared to what Google makes from ads, which was over $29 billion in 2022 alone.