Alphabet Reports YouTube Ad Revenue for First Time, Video Service Generated $15.1 Billion in 2019

Google’s parent company Alphabet is shedding more light on YouTube, breaking out advertising revenue for the video platform for the first time.

In addition, Alphabet is reporting sales for Google Search and Google Cloud. The internet company released the new info in reporting results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2019.

YouTube had $15.15 billion in ad revenue for 2019, up 36% from $11.16 billion the year prior, according to Alphabet. For Q4 2019, YouTube advertising sales were $4.72 billion, a 31% year-over-year increase. YouTube’s ad revenue was $8.15 billion in 2017.

The company is breaking out results for YouTube, Search and Cloud to “provide further insight into our business and the opportunities ahead,” Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, said in a statement.

Overall, Alphabet reported revenue of $46.08 billion for Q4, falling short of Wall Street consensus expectations of $46.9 billion. The company posted diluted earnings per share of $15.35 for the quarter, topping analyst forecasts of EPS of $12.53.

Google Cloud, the company’s cloud-computing services group, had revenue of $2.61 billion in Q4 and revenue of $8.92 billion for full-year 2019 (both up 53% year-over-year). Google Search revenue clocked in at $27.19 billion for Q4, up 16.6%.

Google’s “other” revenue, which includes YouTube paid subscriptions and Google Play, grew 10% in the fourth quarter to $5.26 billion.

Sundar Pichai, recently elevated to the position of CEO of Alphabet along with his role as CEO of Google, commented in prepared remarks, “I’m really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube, already at $15 billion in annual ad revenue, and Cloud, which is now on a $10 billion revenue run rate.”

YouTube’s revenues, as reported by Alphabet, are above where research firm eMarketer had believed they were: According to its October 2019 forecast, YouTube’s global ad revenue was expected to grow nearly 20% to $11.4 billion by the end of 2019.

Separately, YouTube on Monday outlined new policies related to elections, saying it will remove content that has been faked or is designed to mislead people. That includes deepfakes videos that have been “technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users (beyond clips taken out of context) and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm”; content that “aims to mislead people about voting or the census processes, like telling viewers an incorrect voting date”; and content that “advances false claims related to the technical eligibility requirements for current political candidates and sitting elected government officials to serve in office.”