YouTube rakes in advertising revenue, despite user frustration

YouTube rakes in record amounts of money from advertising, despite users complaining about the strategy.

Despite user complaints about its advertising strategy, which is considered quite "aggressive" and "reckless", YouTube still "pocketed" a huge amount of money from advertising in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Specifically, this video platform earned $ 10.4 billion from advertising, up 13.8% compared to the previous year. This impressive figure comes in the context of users increasingly dissatisfied with the way YouTube inserts ads into videos, especially non-skippable ads.

YouTube rakes in advertising revenue, despite user frustration Picture 1 YouTube rakes in advertising revenue, despite user frustration Picture 1

YouTube earns tens of billions of dollars from advertising.

According to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (YouTube's parent company), one of the key factors helping YouTube achieve record revenue is political advertising. Both Democrats and Republicans are spending nearly double on YouTube ads in the 2024 US presidential election compared to 2020.

In addition, YouTube also owns a huge and unique content library, attracting a large number of "passive" viewers, even if they are not satisfied with the ads.

Many users are frustrated by the frequency and manner in which ads appear on YouTube. They believe that the overabundance of ads, especially non-skippable ads, negatively impacts the video viewing experience. Some users have turned to YouTube Premium to escape the ad 'nightmare,' but not everyone is willing to pay the fee.

YouTube is now betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its advertising performance. According to Alphabet's chief business officer Philipp Schindler, AI can help target ads more precisely, resulting in higher returns for advertisers.

However, this could also mean that users will have to face more "annoying" ads in the future.