YouTube announced its advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2024 at an impressive USD 8.92 billion, as the website continues to deliver a double-digit growth rate on already big revenue numbers. YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, does not regularly report total quarterly revenue for YouTube, but given the impressive performance, this was announced as a part of Alphabet’s earning report for the same period.
Before this announcement, Wall Street analysts had forecasted YouTube’s advertising revenue to be around USD 8.89 billion for this quarter, but YouTube beat their expectations by improving their ad revenue by 12.2% year over year. However, these numbers do not include subscription revenue coming in from YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, YouTube Music Premium or NFL Sunday Ticket.
Additionally, YouTube’s total revenue including subscriptions surpassed USD 50 billion in the past 12 months for the very first time. As per Philipp Schindler, Google’s Chief Business Officer, ad commitments are up 20% year over year. A part of it could be accounted for by the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, which generated 850 million unique viewers, with 12 billion views in total and 35% viewing time on TV screens.
Looking at Alphabet’s overall performance, the company reported a revenue and net income of USD 88.27 billion and USD 26.3 billion, up by 15% and 34%, respectively. This translates to $2.12 in earnings per share, again beating Wall Street’s expectations of $1.85 in earnings per share.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said, “The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools.”
Furthermore, Pichai reiterated YouTube’s recent announcement that the platform will let creators organize their content into seasons and episodes on YouTube’s TV apps, to make the user experience feel more like those of streaming services.