Leaders Playbook: Inside YouTube 2/4/26

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0:35Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos, and more. All curated just for traders. Plus, guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need, so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at schwab.com slash trading. On this episode of Leaders Playbook, Inside YouTube, the video sharing platform drawing 2 billion people a day to search, watch, and create. We really had no idea how successful it was going to be. Meet the leader behind the world's biggest stage. I have 8 million subscribers on YouTube.

1:15We just crossed 5 million, which is really exciting. It's got to be the best stage, the best technology, the best experience. See how he's rewriting the rules. To his credit, he spends a lot of time with creators. He wants to be a part of what makes YouTube YouTube. And how he's transforming the largest video empire in the world with subscriptions, live sports and technology. AI is going to be transformational. Go inside the high stakes decisions with the team making it happen. That was a bet on viewers. That was a risk. And the moment when the company faced its biggest threat. This was an existential crisis.

1:53Leaders Playbook YouTube starts now. I'm meeting YouTube CEO Neil Mohan at the company's global headquarters in San Bruno, California. After eight years as YouTube's chief product officer, he was named CEO in 2023. What do you think it is about your leadership style that has enabled you to drive so much change at this company? There is a team, an enormous team of incredibly talented people that work with me every day that have put YouTube in the position that it is today. I like to say that we have to be really, really flexible in terms of thinking about what's happening in the market, what's happening with our creators, with our viewers, the feedback that we're getting on a regular basis.

2:32In 2024, YouTube generated more than$36 billion in ad revenue, driving that value? Tens of millions of people creating and uploading content. For Mohan, those creators are at the center of every decision he makes. Our job is to really build the stage. And what I mean by that is, by that metaphor, is it's got to be the best stage, the best technology, the best experience. It's got to have the best sort of place for viewers to sit, the seats, all that has to be perfect, the sound, etc. But the people that are on the stage are our creators. Mary Ellen Coe is YouTube's chief business officer. Creators are the lifeblood of YouTube.

3:15And we spend an incredible amount of time with them. And it's important to really think about we have this business in service to our creators. Mohan and Coe's work at YouTube starts outside their offices. The CEO himself is on the ground with creators, hearing their ideas and using their feedback to shape the company's future. I always say to my product teams here that if you really want to understand fundamentally how our product works, go talk to creators. They will give you feedback at an extremely detailed kind of minutiae level. They sweat the details. They are in those details. And it could be the biggest creator on the platform down to someone starting today.

3:55And so that spirit of entrepreneurship that comes from creators, I think, really permeates the culture of YouTube as well. I'm on a texting basis with a lot of our creators, and I try to keep a very open line of communication. We want to hear perspectives. Michelle Kare is one of those creators. She shares her daredevil stunts with more than 5 million subscribers. I love giving feedback because it helps us make the content creation process easier. Some of that feedback gets to be really technical, like what are creators looking for? How does this impact your production flow? If you walk the halls here at YouTube, you will hear the term creator 100 times a day.

4:37We spend a lot of time on how do we make sure that creators not just have a voice, but have an incredible sustained business. Sitting down with the CEO of YouTube, you know, for us was a big milestone. The Colin and Samir show with one and a half million subscribers delves into the business of YouTube from the creator's perspective. We had an hour with Neil and we gave him our feedback on the platform. The duo says Mohan didn't just listen to their feedback. He acted on it, adding tools they'd been asking for and rolling out new ways for creators to make money, including automated ad placement across channels.

5:13That is definitely a reaction to conversations that we and a bunch of other creators have had with Neil. We pride ourselves in being very attuned to the needs of our creators, no matter how rapidly they're changing. YouTube comedy creator Haley Khalil, who has over 8 million subscribers, says YouTube built her feedback into the product. There were certain tools in a different editing app that I liked. I told YouTube and then they literally coded those tools like within the next couple months and boom there they were in the editing system for YouTube Shorts. I always say that there's two things that we do.

5:49We help creators first build an audience and then we help them build a business. Seeking direct detailed creator input is at the heart of Mohan's leadership. Our creators don't hold back. When they give us feedback I generally find it to be extremely well thought out. They're talking about their specific channel, but they're doing it through a lens of something that might help all creators. And I think that that's really special. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes I'll take a contrarian position just to make sure people see it's okay to disagree. And, or call upon someone who has a very contrarian point of view.

6:27Because we really want to foster dissent and open debate in the organization and in the creator community. For Mohan, one of the biggest leadership lessons he's learned from creators is authenticity. You have to be authentic about what you're talking about, whatever narrative you're doing. It's got to be an idea that you're excited about. Because if you're not, your fans will see through that. And it will show up in your channel, in your stats or what have you. And so I think it kind of, that goes both ways. Like it's advice that I give to them, but I actually learned that from them. And I think that that is a core part of, you know, hopefully my leadership style, but also I think a big part of the culture here at YouTube.

7:12Coming up. We really had no idea how successful it was going to be. Inside Mohan's vision and why he made big bets. On paid subscriptions, live TV and a reported$14 billion deal with the NFL. And later. Top of mind for me and, you know, all our leaders across here at YouTube is AI. After the break. At Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time.

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8:37Try our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com slash trader plus. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Member NYSE SIPC. Over the past two decades, YouTube has grown into the most popular video platform in the world. and Neil Mohan oversees the decisions shaping the company's expansion, making long-term bets while staying agile. I like to say that we have to be really, really flexible in terms of thinking about what's happening in the market, what's happening with our creators, with our viewers, the feedback that we're getting on a regular basis.

9:13But our core strategy has to be something that stands the test of time. YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe. Neil has, I would call it, his attention to both detail, his ability to dive deeply into the business, but his ability to step back, see trends and think expansively about how viewers use the platform is really kind of unparalleled with anybody I've worked with. An early sign of Mohan's willingness to forge a new path came in 2015, when he helped launch YouTube Bread, later rebranded YouTube Premium, a big bet that consumers would pay for content on a platform known for being free.

9:55What made you confident that people would start to pay for a subscription on a platform that they never had to pay for before? There was an opportunity for more consumer choice. Yes, we had this sort of free ad-supported model that worked for the vast majority of our users. But surveys and other insights that said that viewers would be willing to pay for a different experience on YouTube. You know, fewer interruptions, you know, background, offline. And that was what gave us conviction on the viewer side, on the creator and partner side. As you know, our business model is a rev share model, but creating a dual revenue stream for them was also a big motivation.

10:32Despite the risk involved, Mohan made the call to give the new subscription model time to grow. Were you surprised by how that went and the fact that now you have over 125 million subscribers? We really had no idea how successful it was going to be. We knew that it was something interesting to try out, but we had no idea how it would scale. So I think the key thing was, and I, you know, a lot of credit to Google to having that sort of broad patience. It took years to build it up. and now 125 million subscribers. Later, a lot of it seems like, well, inevitable, but there were a lot of bumps along the way early on and I think sort of having that long-term patience was a key part of it.

11:09Music is really seen as so much what YouTube's identity is, right? People put music in their videos, they go to YouTube to watch music, to listen to music. How did that come about? Music has always been part of YouTube's heritage from the very beginning. It's been core to the DNA. You mentioned creators using music in their videos. But that has always been... So it started with that. So a lot of those YouTube music and premium features were designed initially around music lovers. People who wanted background. People who wanted offline. People who wanted no interruptions when they're listening to their favorite songs and playlists.

11:47And my general sort of philosophy, kind of product philosophy, is that you really do want to put everything that you're looking to deliver to viewers in one experience as much as you possibly can. But consuming music was differentiated enough that we made the bet to actually have it in a standalone app, which is YouTube Music. In 2017, Mohan and his team made another bold bet, reimagining linear television. The idea was simple. Take the content viewers love on TV and offer a bundle of 100 live TV channels via streaming. as an alternative to cable or satellite. We thought that if we brought a lot of the YouTube sort of design principles, product principles to that experience, we could transform it for the better.

12:32Really, first and foremost, through the lens of our users. Almost a decade later, YouTube TV is one of the fastest growing live TV providers. And along with linear TV, viewers are increasingly consuming all types of YouTube content on the big screen. A big part of what creators demand from us is being on the cutting edge of capabilities that are important to them, being on the cutting edge of technology. In fact, in the U.S., over 50 percent of our engagement time, watch time on YouTube actually happens on television screens. And I think that that's a trend that's just getting started because we're going to see it really all over the world.

13:08While YouTube is expanding, a new threat emerged during the pandemic. Short form videos on TikTok and Instagram. Mohan moved quickly to make sure YouTube wasn't left behind. YouTube Shorts was this notion of the fact that we have these incredible computers and cameras that are in our pockets. And what that meant is that the very consumption of videos and content in general was becoming much more participatory in nature. Meaning that the lines between creation of content and consumption of content were blurring. And that's actually the essence of what YouTube Shorts is. If we really want to live up to our vision of being kind of all things video, well, then this type of new video creation also needed to be part of the YouTube story.

13:54That strategy propelled YouTube Shorts to more than 2 billion logged in viewers a month, generating over 200 billion daily views, competing head to head with Reels and TikTok. While YouTube was building its short form video business, it was fighting another battle brewing in podcasts. Tens of millions of people opted to listen on other platforms rather than watch on YouTube. But Mohan moved quickly. People were locked in their homes. Instead of just listening in their cars, they were on their television screens and they wanted to see the faces of the podcasters. They wanted to see two people speaking to each other.

14:29So in 2022, YouTube started promoting on-camera podcasts with a new hub, turning the video platform into a podcast destination, now drawing more than a billion podcast consumers a month, making YouTube the most popular platform for podcasts in the U.S., topping Spotify and Apple. But Mohan's single biggest financial bet came in 2023, a reported$14 billion seven-year deal with the NFL for its Sunday ticket subscription package. The investment in the NFL, really, that was a bet on viewers. That was a bet on how viewers want to experience their content. And that was a risk. There's an enormous amount of fandom that exists on YouTube around the NFL.

15:11So that was really kind of the first insight, which is we have tens, if not hundreds of millions of sports fans coming to the platform on a regular basis. How do we super serve them? The second consideration was there something that we could do that was about technological innovation that we could bring to the experience. The deal offers a subscription to access all out-of-market games, and fans can watch YouTube creators' commentary and interviews on the sidelines. Young fans want to consume the sport in a different way. And so bringing YouTubers and our creators into that sports NFL live game consumption experience as a way to turbocharge the fandom, I think has been probably one of the biggest innovations and sort of transformations we've brought to the consumption of NFL.

15:57Mohan's continuing to bet on football and it's delivering. YouTube offered a live stream free worldwide of the Chiefs Chargers season opener in Brazil. The game drew more than 19 million simultaneous global viewers a record for the platform. Coming up, how YouTube's CEO stepped up when the company's reputation hung in the balance. This was an existential crisis for YouTube. It was a crisis of confidence. After the break. At Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time.

16:44So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy. It's smart to always have a few financial goals. And a really smart one you can set? Earning cash back on what you buy every day. And with Discover, you can. Get this. Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions. After all, you listen to this show. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab.

17:26Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts. The true test of leadership is a crisis, and perhaps YouTube's biggest crisis was in 2017. That year, some of the world's largest advertisers pulled their spending after reports that ads were appearing next to controversial and extremist content.

18:06The boycott immediately cost YouTube millions and was projected to result in$750 million in lost revenue that year if it continued. Neil Mohan remembers the moment clearly. We were at a company offsite and I was sitting next to my long-term friend, mentor, Susan Wojcicki. She was the CEO at the time. And Susan and I looked at each other and we both kind of recognized that, yes, this was an existential crisis for YouTube. It was a crisis of confidence. And a lot of it had to do with whether YouTube was going to stand up for these principles. As chief product officer at the time, Mohan took the lead.

18:43I remember, you know, talking to Susan and raising my hand, saying that this is something that I think is very important. I had some thoughts on sort of how we would address it. And I kind of basically sort of raised my hand and said, let's be all hands on deck. I'll drive this. I'll lead the charge. And to her immense credit, she let me do that. His plan? Hire thousands of human reviewers to make important judgment calls and invest in technology to detect harmful or extreme content at scale before it spreads. It was establishing the core North Star principle, which is we stand for freedom of expression.

19:20But that doesn't mean that sort of anything goes. We've always had rules of the road, which are called our community guidelines. And I would argue that those two competing principles, sort of free expression, rules of the road, actually end up being self-reinforcing. You know, we want everyone to have a voice and we want to reflect all sides, but we also have to protect our viewers. You know, we have to be responsible. You're dealing with different regulatory environments. How do you think about the commitment to those principles when you're operating in so many different cultures? Obviously, cultures are different all over the world.

19:56Government imperatives are different. How YouTube shows up in societies around the world is very different. And I spend, you know, a fair amount of time traveling to our creators, our offices in different parts of the world. So I get this experience firsthand. And so I have found that talking about the principles is something that generally resonates. And being a global platform, I view it as our responsibility to take that into account when we enforce those. But as much as possible, being true and as transparent about those core principles, I think is important and the only way to actually truly operate a global platform.

20:34This platform is a tremendous responsibility. And I think it takes that responsibility very seriously. So his vigilance to think about all the stakeholder groups and how things could play out unintentionally is really an important feature for the CEO of YouTube. You've earned the nickname Even Kiel Neal because you don't seem to get rattled even when facing a huge amount of pressure. How do you keep cool when facing such high stakes decisions? That's kind of generally been who I am ever since I was a kid. I like to remind my teams, remind myself that it's always about perspective. YouTube is an incredibly fun and exciting place, but it has lots and lots of challenges that we face every single day on behalf of our creators and viewers.

21:20And so I think for me, it's just about having that perspective, which is today's challenge in many ways can be tomorrow's opportunity. CEO Neil Mohan has been helping lead YouTube's transformation for over a decade, reshaping the platform to keep up with creators' needs, changing viewing habits, and now more than ever, fast-moving technology. I think top of mind for everybody, but certainly top of mind for me and all our leaders across here at YouTube is AI. We are in this incredibly transformational time. I think what's right for creators and what's right for viewers evolves based on their needs.

21:59And that happens with new formats. It happens with AI. It happens as the way that they actually need to use the platform evolves. For Mohan, the real opportunity is cutting-edge tools to enable creators to produce better content faster and amplify their reach. You actually can also be extremely bold and transformative in terms of using this AI capability to build features that otherwise would have just been kind of dreams two years ago. But you can do it in a responsible fashion. Today, YouTube's introducing AI across the platform, including tools to generate shorts from text prompts, edit raw footage, and suggest titles and ideas for videos.

22:42And that technology will only advance in leaps and bounds in the months and years ahead. One of the most useful AI tools for the global platform can translate content into more than a dozen languages, so more viewers can watch in their native tongue. It's a tool creator Sam Chaudhry is already using to share his show in new languages. YouTube will actually dub your content in another language and they will re-animate your lips to make it look like you are speaking that language. I don't speak Portuguese. Mas o YouTube adicionou dublagem automática com sincronia labial. A big part of what creators demand from us is being on the cutting edge of capabilities that are important to them, being on the cutting edge of technology.

23:22And beyond creation, YouTube is using AI to identify deep fakes and flag likeness misuse to give creators more control over their face, their voice, and their identity. One of the challenges with creators is that on one hand, AI offers them a great opportunity. You're offering them all these AI tools, but you also want to reassure them that they're not going to be replaced by AI. How do you think about the role AI is going to play for this creative community and that balance you face? It would be naive to think that it wouldn't impact a creator's business, a partner's business, the music industry's business.

23:58And I think that when you have that honest conversation with partners and creators, they get that. They recognize that. You can't just bury your head in the sand. At the heart of Mohan's strategy is an eagerness to respond to the needs of creators and consumers while also leading them into the future. With a playbook that balances near-term agility and long-term visionary bets. keeping this 20-year-old tech platform essential and at the cutting edge. A big part of what creators demand from us is being on the cutting edge of capabilities that are important to them, being on the cutting edge of technology.

24:31But it's important to understand why the company really exists. And why YouTube exists is back to this metaphor of actually building that stage. It's got to be the best stage, the best technology, the best experience. More valuable insights from some of the top business minds in the country on the next episode of Leaders Playbook.

25:14so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at swap.com slash trading.