From Google host to Silicon Valley mogul: YouTube CEO suddenly resigned

Susan Wojcicki, one of Silicon Valley's most powerful female leaders and CEO of YouTube, abruptly announced Thursday that she would resign from YouTube and Google.

In her open letter, Wojcicki, 54, said she would begin a new chapter focusing on family, health and personal projects she is passionate about. Neil Mohan, an Indian-born executive who has served as her deputy for many years, will succeed her as head of YouTube.

Wojcicki's experience is legendary, witnessing the birth of Google, which led to Google's acquisition of YouTube and its growth into the world's largest content creation platform. According to statistics, as of the end of 2022, Wojcicki's net private wealth was $765 million.

However, she was also a leader in driving YouTube regulation and media residency, leading to the discontent of countless freelance creators on the YouTube platform that she had ruined YouTube.

Start with the garage

In 1998, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were just students starting a business in Silicon Valley, with no money but dreams. Wojcicki was just a student at the time, and in particular, she bought a house in Silicon Valley.

According to later interviews, Wojcicki said that she needed to pay off her mortgage and was quite strapped for cash, so she rented her garage to Page and Brin. As it turned out, she had a unique vision, and Google, born in a garage, went on to become the world's largest search engine.

In 1999, after Google rose to prominence, the two founders persuaded Wojcicki to join Google and become one of Google's first employees. In 2006, Google bought Wojcicki's home as a memorial to Google's fortune. That same year, she advocated Google's acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion.

In 2007, Brin married Wojcicki's sister Anne, and Wojcicki's relationship with Google grew closer. In 2015, Brin and Anne divorced, and Wojcicki had become one of Google's core executives.

In the 14 years since joining Google, Wojcicki has been responsible for the design and construction of Google's advertising and analytics products. In 2014, she was promoted to head of YouTube, leading the division's rapid expansion into the world's largest video platform.

As of now, according to the company, YouTube now has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, with more than 500 hours of content uploaded to the platform every hour.

Financially, in 2022, YouTube generated $29.2 billion in revenue through ad sales, accounting for more than 10% of the total revenue of Google's parent company Alphabet.

Mixed reviews

As a key contributor to YouTube's development, Wojcicki is certainly one of the heroes of the platform. But interestingly, since she became head of YouTube, public opinion has not been very friendly to her.

In fact, Wojcicki is "notorious" among freelance creators for its advertising and censorship policies since coming to power. They believe that Wojcicki has single-handedly created a platform where words are hijacked and small creators cannot make money, turning YouTube, the world's leading product, into a joke.

In the US version of Quora-related questions, almost one-sided commentators said that Wojcicki should step down.

Some say Wojcicki has used YouTube's unclear moderation policy to restrict free speech and suppress the speech of black, LGBTQ and other minorities.

There are also complaints about YouTube's ad-friendly monetization policy. If a creator's video content complies with platform regulations and is considered family-friendly, creators can earn money from YouTube's built-in ads. But conversely, if video content isn't popular with YouTube, creators can't get ads and thus can't make money.

Another thing that is confusing is even more coincidental. On Wednesday, Jim Jordan, chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, issued subpoenas to the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft to clarify their respective companies' content moderation policies.

Republicans suspect that big tech companies are working with the government to restrict the flow of content and form values and public opinion that benefit certain people or groups, seriously violating citizens' right to free speech.

And this point is exactly the same as the problem that Wojcicki has been attacked, which also makes many netizens even less optimistic about Wojcicki.

Weak earnings

Criticism of Wojcicki aside, but one thing that seems quite true is that YouTube is going downhill.

According to Alphabet's latest earnings report, YouTube's advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of last year was $7.96 billion, down 7.8% year-over-year and also lower than analysts' expectations of $8.2 billion.

PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescadore said YouTube has seen its second consecutive quarter of year-on-year ad revenue decline, which is extremely worrying, highlighting the strong threat of short video content rivals such as Tiktok and Facebook Reels.

Google's first such downturn has also made analysts worry about YouTube's long-term development. This is also one of the main reasons why Alphabet's share price has fallen by about 10% since the earnings report.

Wojcicki's sudden departure leaves some suspense, and whether the new Mohan can change the status quo is waiting to be seen by the melon-eating masses and YouTube creators.

(Cai Lian News Agency Maran)