YouTube is absurdly huge

Hi, it’s Mark Bergen in Los Angeles. YouTube has quietly become a global economic and cultural juggernaut. But first...Today’s must-reads:• [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Mark Bergen in Los Angeles. YouTube has quietly become a global economic and cultural juggernaut. But first... Today’s must-reads: • Twitter wants Elon Musk to [turn over all his text messages]( from the first half of 2022 • Amazon said its [“Lord of the Rings” series]( drew more than 25 million viewers on its first day • Here’s what to expect from Apple’s [iPhone 14 launch event]( Teens’ 95% app In August, Pew Research [released a comprehensive survey]( of American teens and social media. It showed, among other things, that only a third of the youth use Facebook, while more than two-thirds use TikTok. But the real outlier wasn’t TikTok—it was YouTube. A whopping 95% of teens surveyed said they use the video platform owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google. More teens reported visiting YouTube “almost constantly” than they did any other app. YouTube has been such a dominant force online for so long that it often slides under the radar, especially compared with buzzy companies like TikTok and scandal-plagued giants like Meta Platforms Inc. YouTube’s history and wild growth is the subject of my new book out Tuesday, [Like, Comment, Subscribe](. Here are eight more numbers that underscore the platform’s stunning reach: 254% That’s how much YouTube’s ad sales grew in the four years after 2017, a dark period for the company. At the time, YouTube was in a financial tailspin. Advertiser boycotts over extremist videos had sent the company scrambling to put in safeguards and make its business work. YouTube [even considered]( ending revenue-sharing with creators altogether. But it didn’t. The business bounced back—remarkably well. While concerns over extremism haven’t entirely gone away, YouTube brought in $28.8 billion last year alone. 325 million In India, YouTube has nearly as many monthly active users—325 million—as the US has people. And this statistic is from 2020; it’s surely larger now. India, a country with relatively low TV penetration, is the company’s biggest market by users in the world. It’s also a place where [TikTok, a key rival, is banned](. Doing business in the country comes with [political challenges]( and commercial limitations. But for people there, as in several other emerging markets, YouTube remains the primary screen. 6.4 million Alexey Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader, has more than [6 million YouTube]( subscribers. Russia is another big market for YouTube and, shockingly, it’s the only US media service to [still operate there]( since the onset of the war in Ukraine. (Google and YouTube pulled their ads business from Russia but kept their main services.) While state critics like Navalny are big in the country, so is state-run media, like RT. $4 billion For the 12 months following April 2020, YouTube doled out $4 billion to the music industry, chiefly as revenue sharing from ads that rolled on music videos—an extraordinarily popular form. (“Despacito” has 7.9 billion views [and counting](.) YouTube says that more than 30% of these royalties went to independent creators, not record labels. YouTube has struggled to turn this popularity into a streaming service on par with Spotify and Apple Music. But it’s still trying. YouTube is, as Bloomberg’s [Lucas Shaw has written](, the “biggest music service in the world.” 572,117,085 This is the number of views YouTube star [Cocomelon]( got during the last week of August, according to online publication Tubefilter, which regularly tracks the most popular YouTube channels. It’s an [eye-opening list](. Cocomelon, the nursery rhyme juggernaut, is the reigning champ, and regularly rakes in over 500 million views a week. Six of the top 10 channels by views are made for children, proof that kids entertainment—despite a [regulatory crackdown](—is still a mega-business online. 700 million YouTube is a leader in the race for mobile screen time, but it’s also contender on televisions. In January, people watched more than 700 million hours of YouTube on smart TVs alone, according to the company. YouTube frequently calls TV its “fastest-growing screen,” a bat signal to advertisers. This year, the company [made its first appearance]( at the so-called upfronts, TV’s biggest marketing confab. 2 million Last year, YouTube announced that it was sharing ad sales with more than 2 million creators. That number was even higher before 2018, when YouTube added certain requirements for video monetization after a series of scandals. Still, today that’s 2 million YouTube channels with at least 1,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 hours of footage that people watch. The closest rival is TikTok, which is growing tremendously—but has had its share of [political complications]( and [creator backlash](. 500 This one still boggles my mind. Every minute, at least 500 hours of footage are uploaded to YouTube. YouTube shared that figure in 2019. It’s definitely bigger now. —[Mark Bergen](mailto:mbergen10@bloomberg.net) The big story Amazon, determined to reduce the size of its sprawling delivery operation amid slowing sales growth, has [abandoned dozens of existing and planned facilities]( around the US, according to a closely watched consulting firm. MWPVL International estimated that the company either shuttered or killed plans to open 42 facilities and delayed opening 21 more. What else you need to know The FTC wants [Mark Zuckerberg to seek approval]( for any future mergers. Self-driving car company Aurora floated the idea of a [possible sale to Apple or Microsoft]( as market conditions worsen. OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky is getting [more than $500 million]( in dividends over two years. Conservative social app Parler [returned](to Google Play. Former Disney and TikTok executive Kevin Mayer talked about the future of streaming [on Bloomberg TV](. “ESPN was a very strategic asset” for Disney, Mayer said, but the channel business is declining. “I wouldn’t be shocked to see it spun off from Disney.” Join Bloomberg Live in London for the [Bloomberg Technology Summit]( on Sept. 28 to see Europe’s business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs and investors explain how they’re adapting to this new environment—and discuss solution-based strategies. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. 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