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Today’s News

QUARTERLY REPORT

YouTube raked in $8.9 billion in ad revenue during Q3 2024

The report: YouTube's third quarter of 2024 was a TV-fueled triumph. The video-oriented subsidiary of Google‘s parent company raked in $8.9 billion in ad revenue during Q3 2024, a full $1 billion more than it earned in Q3 2023. YouTube also achieved an unprecedented milestone by reaching $50 billion in aggregate ad and subscription revenue over the past four quarters.

The video platform’s growing presence on TV screens had a lot to do with that success. Since positioning its annual Brandcast to align with the TV-focused upfronts and prioritizing premium subscriptions like NFL Sunday Ticket, YouTube Premium, and YouTube TV, YouTube has increased both its share of TV viewership and its ad load on TVs. According to Google CBO Philipp Schindler (pictured above), the platform’s upfront commitments from advertisers went up by 20% year-over-year.

The big picture: Other subsidiaries outside of YouTube contributed the lion’s share of Alphabet’s revenue, leading it to beat analyst expectations with $88.3 billion in quarterly revenue. Google’s ads division led the way with a 34% increase to $26.3 billion in revenue.

Those stats paint a rosy picture of Alphabet’s future—but one looming threat could still impact its growing empire. Although Google has repeatedly contested allegations of monopolistic practices, an ongoing court battle could result in a forced breakup of its ad business. For now, however, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the company is confronting the legal challenge head-on:

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• A new partnership between Amazon and Spotter will give creators a direct link to the world of ecommerce. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• The Grammy Awards is leaving CBS after more than 50 years. Thanks to a new deal with Disney, the show will move to Hulu, ABC, and Disney+ beginning in 2027. (Variety)
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• As Threads approaches the 275- million-user mark, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the app has “been growing more than a million sign ups per day.” (Engadget)
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• According to CEO Sundar Pichai, over a quarter of Google’s new code is generated by AI. (Engadget)

ON THE REBOUND

Snapchat just beat analyst projections for Q3 by bringing in $1.37B in quarterly revenue

The rebound: Things are looking up for Snap. The Snapchat parent company surpassed analyst projections for Q3 by pulling in a cool $1.37 billion in quarterly revenue—a result that sent its stock price soaring. According to Barron’s, the company’s stock rose by 9.6% during premarket trading in the wake of the Q3 report.

Snap’s promising Q3 results are the latest in a string of encouraging financial results. Two quarters ago, the company enjoyed an even bigger stock boost thanks to the growth of services like the subscription offering Snapchat+.

After soaring past the million subscriber mark shortly after launch, the premium tier has doubled its subscribers year-over-year to reach 12 million. The “other revenue” line in Snap’s earnings report—which covers products like Spectacles—has doubled year-over-year as well.

The context: Those positive results represent significant growth for Snap, which was in a markedly different position just last year. In July 2023, the tech company experienced a stock market plummet shortly after bracing investors for a rocky future; a few months later, a round of layoffs hit its augmented reality (AR) division.

Snap responded to those hurdles by finding new ways to invest in AR and original content, fostering the growth of Snapchat+, and introducing a “simplified version of Snapchat” that is “focused on communicating with friends, using the camera, and watching entertaining content” (per the Q3 investor letter).

Despite the one snag in Snap’s quarterly report (its projected Q4 revenue is lagging slightly behind analyst projections), that turnaround will likely serve as a source of reassurance for the company’s investors.

THE SEARCH IS ON

Meta wants to build a search engine that will fuel its AI chatbots

The tech: Meta is reportedly working on a search engine designed to supply its Meta AI chatbots with details on topics like news, sports, and stocks. The new product would deliver information and answers to users across Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

That development was first reported by The Information, which noted that Meta hopes to lessen its dependence on fellow Big Tech firms like Google and Microsoft (which respectively own Google Search and Bing). The Facebook parent’s search engine aspirations are hardly surprising: Meta has already teamed up with third-party organizations like Reuters—which just signed on as Meta AI’s official news supplier—and has been working to accelerate its development of chatbots and AI-generated avatars. Its most recent Newfronts pitch also centered heavily on AI.

The competition: Now, the development of a search engine could help Meta gain on one of its main rivals in the world of AI: OpenAI. The ChatGPT developer’s relationship with primary investor Microsoft gives it an easy connection to Bing, and it’s currently working on its own AI-powered search engine (aka SearchGPT). Even so, Meta AI isn’t too far behind. It now reaches 185 million weekly active users, putting it within hailing distance of ChatGPT’s 250 million weekly users.

WATCH THIS 📺

Netflix knows your favorite scenes are too good not to share

The campaign: Netflix’s latest marketing push is all about word-of-mouth. A recent ad reminds viewers that even celebs like Simone Biles obsess over their favorite shows—so much so that they just have to share them with anyone who will listen.

That campaign promotes an upcoming feature called Moments, which allows Netflix viewers to save clips from original movies and TV shows and share them across social media platforms. In other words: Netflix has found a way to generate its own fandom-based feedback loop—one that could prove to be a valuable source of free marketing.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.