For the past nine years, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has been in charge of the world’s largest video site. She is leaving her position. Neal Mohan, her longtime lieutenant, will take her place.
Wojcicki announced her resignation in a letter to YouTube employees to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Google, which acquired the website in 2006, and Alphabet, the holding company that houses both of them, saw YouTube grow in importance during her tenure: Over 10% of Alphabet’s total revenue in 2022 came from ads sold on YouTube, which brought in $29.2 billion.
Additionally, Wojcicki’s departure has significant significance for Google and technology as a whole. She has been one of the few women to run a large tech company for years. She also played a significant role in the formation of Google. In 1998, she famously let out her garage in Silicon Valley to her co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and a year later, she joined the company as its sixteenth employee.
“Susan has a unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere,” Page and Brin said in a statement. “We’re so grateful for all she’s done over the last 25 years.”
Wojcicki was in charge of marketing when he started working for Google. He also helped the company build its online ad business and ran the video service that Google was using to try to beat YouTube. In the end, she argued that Google should purchase the website.
While she was in charge of YouTube, she made it a priority to make the platform more accessible to advertisers. At the same time, she tried to manage the enormous and unruly group of video creators that powered the platform.
That periodically resulted in criticism from video creators, who claimed that YouTube’s rule changes and moderation decisions made it difficult for them to make a living. Outsiders, on the other hand, claimed that YouTube wasn’t doing enough to discourage hate speech and other content that was unpleasant. In a 2019 interview, Wojcicki told me, “We managed to upset everybody.”
Wojcicki has worked closely with Mohan, her replacement, for years. Mohan has been Wojcicki’s top choice ever since the two of them first collaborated on the development of Google’s display advertising business. 2 since 2015 on YouTube.
“Susan has built an exceptional team and has in Neal a successor who is ready to hit the ground running and lead YouTube through its next decade of success,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
