Feb 17, 2023

Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki will step down and Neil Mohan will become SVP and President.

On Thursday, Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced her departure after nearly a decade at the helm. Chief Product Officer Neil Mohan will take over as senior vice president and new head of the company.

In a blog post, Wojcicki explained her decision:" Today, after nearly 25 years here, I have decided to step down from my role as head of Youtube and begin a new chapter focused on my family, my health, and the personal projects I am passionate about."

Youtube is owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company. Google founders and top Alphabet shareholders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's relationship with Voichki goes back decades; when the two were developing a search engine, she rented a garage in her home as a workspace for $1,700 a month. Wojcicki was working for Intel at the time.

"Susan is unique in Google's history and has made some of the most extraordinary contributions to products used by people around the world," Page and Brin said in a statement released after Wojcicki's retirement announcement. We are grateful for all she has done for us over the past 25 years."

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the 16th employee and oversaw the design and implementation of Google's advertising and analytics products for 14 years; in 2006, she was a leading voice in favor of the company's acquisition of Youtube for $1.65 billion.

In 2014, she began her work as CEO of Youtube. Under her leadership, the site became the world's largest video streaming service, now with more than 2.5 billion monthly users and over 500 hours of content uploaded every minute. in 2022, the video site's advertising platform will generate $29.2 billion, and Google's parent company Alphabet, accounting for about 10% of its revenue.

Wojcicki's creator-driven philosophy on Youtube has had an undeniable impact on the animation community; Youtube has become a gateway to success for independent artists and animators, and has been supported by many creators who had already established themselves before Youtube became popular It also became the platform of choice for many creators who had already established themselves before Youtube became popular. Over the years, creators have often taken issue with some of the site's policies, such as inappropriate suggested videos, irrelevant advertising, and monetization/non-monetization of channels, but the importance of Youtube in the animation world cannot be overstated.

Although she is no longer CEO, Wojcicki will remain to help Mohan transition and continue to work with the Youtube team and creators. In the long term, she will take on an advisory role for Google and Alphabet as a whole.

Mohan has been part of Wojcicki's leadership team at Youtube since 2015. Prior to that, he worked at DoubleClick, an advertising platform acquired by Google in 2007.

"I have spent nearly 15 years of my career with Neil," Wojcicki said in his farewell post. "He built a top-notch product and UX team, played a key role in the launch of our biggest products like Youtube TV, Youtube Music, Premium, and Shorts, led the Trust and Safety team, and helped to ensure Youtube was a global platform and has ensured that it fulfills its responsibilities as a platform. He has a great sense of our product, our business, our community of creators and users, and our employees. Neil will be a great leader for Youtube."

Mohan said on Twitter that he intends to build on Youtube's mission of being "a special home for creators and viewers":

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki, it has been a real pleasure working with you over the years. You have built YouTube into a special home for creators and viewers. I am excited to continue this wonderful and important mission. I look forward to what lies ahead... https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb

- Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023 https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb