YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down from her role after nine years leading the Google-owned company, the executive said on Thursday.
In a message to staff, Wojcicki said she was leaving to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.” She will be succeeded by Neal Mohan, most recently YouTube’s chief product officer and Wojcicki’s close lieutenant, who will take on the title of svp and head of YouTube.
Wojcicki was the 16th employee at Google, joining the company co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1999 to build out its ad business and analytics products. Google went on to acquire YouTube in 2006 and Wojcicki took on the CEO position at the video platform in 2014.
During her tenure, YouTube has grown to be a major business for Google and one of the leading platforms for digital creators to monetize their work through the company’s robust ad revenue–sharing program, the YouTube Partner Program. And faced with major competition from TikTok, YouTube has built out its own short-form video offering, Shorts, which averages 50 billion views a day and has its own revenue-sharing program for creators that launched this month.
As a platform, YouTube has regularly brought in quarterly ad revenue above $7 billion in the past year, though the company has seen a slowdown from its massive pandemic growth in recent quarters amid a declining ad market. The platform’s subscription business across YouTube Music Premium and YouTube TV — the latter of which recently won distribution rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket — has also been seen as building “great momentum,” as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted in a Feb. 2 earnings call.
In a separate note to creators shared publicly on Thursday, Wojcicki offered her praise to Mohan and assured creators that the executive “understand this community and what you need today, tomorrow, and in the future better than anyone.”
She also acknowledged “tough and candid” feedback she received from the creator community, especially around the platform’s handling of content moderation for videos containing misinformation, extremist propaganda and inappropriate content, among other issues.
“Your stories of perseverance, creativity, and inspiration were a daily source of motivation and inspired me to be an advocate and steward for this community you all created. It was a constant highlight of my job to sit down with you, hear how you were using the platform, and listen to feedback. Sometimes what you said was tough and candid, but it was important for me and the wider YouTube team to listen and do better,” she said.
In looking toward YouTube’s future, Wojcicki highlighted Shorts, podcasting, streaming and subscriptions as major areas of growth. “I remain just as convinced today as when I started nine years ago, that YouTube’s best days are ahead of it,” she wrote. “And with Neal and our incredible team of employees, you will all be in good hands.”
Wojcicki said she will assume an advisory role at YouTube and parent company Google to help with the transition. Her exit follows the departure of another longtime executive, YouTube’s former chief business officer, Robert Kyncl, who left in October to become the CEO of Warner Music Group.
Read Wojcicki’s note to staff below.
Hi YouTubers,
Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.
It would be one of the best decisions of my life.
Over the years, I’ve worn many hats and done so many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google’s first Video and Book search, as well as early parts of AdSense’s creation, worked on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, served as SVP of Ads, and for the last nine years, the CEO of YouTube. I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people’s lives around the world: finding information, telling stories and supporting creators, artists, and small businesses. I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved. It’s been exhilarating, meaningful, and all-consuming.
Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.
The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015. Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.
With all we’re doing across Shorts, streaming, and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us.
For all the YouTubers I’ve had the privilege to work with, you have done so much to make this platform better over the years. You created the largest creative economy the world has ever seen, enabled entirely new forms of art and storytelling, and supported millions of creators and artists to reach new audiences—all while investing in responsible growth so that this brilliant community of creators, artists, viewers, and advertisers could not only co-exist but thrive together. Thank you!
As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neal and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies. It’s an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.
And beyond that, I’ll still be around, so I’ll have a chance to thank the thousands of people from all across the company and the world who I’ve worked with and learned from. But for now, I want to thank Sundar for his leadership, support and vision over the years. I also want to thank Larry and Sergey for inviting me on what has truly been the adventure of a lifetime. I always dreamed of working for a company with a mission that could change the world for the better. Thanks to you and your vision, I got the chance to live that dream. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of it, and I’m excited for what’s next.
Thank you for everything,
Susan
