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Wojcicki's challenge: Powering up YouTube and its stars

Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
Susan Wojcicki.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The multifaceted power of YouTube was made evident to its CEO, Susan Wojcicki, the day one of her four children sidled up and asked, "Who is Stalin?"

Startled, Wojcicki (wah-JIS-key), 46, assumed her teenaged son had learned about the Soviet dictator in school, so she started a discussion about communism.

"Pretty soon I could tell that wasn't what was going on," laughs Wojcicki, Google's 16th employee and architect of its lucrative AdSense program. She's now throttling up her makeover of YouTube since taking over as CEO in February.


Wojcicki's son was watching the hit YouTube show Epic Rap Battles of History: Rasputin vs. Stalin and not completely getting it, she told USA TODAY in an interview at her parents' house near the Stanford University campus.


Yet, for Millennials, she says, so much of their lives happen on YouTube. "I immediately saw how entertainment videos like this can now also teach kids history."

Wojcicki's mission is simple: Take billion-user YouTube from being an unqualified cultural success story to, finally, a major moneymaker on a par with the company's search engine counterpart.

In her previous role, Wojcicki last year was instrumental in generating the bulk of Google's $55 billion in ad revenue. Although the company doesn't disclose figures, research firm eMarketer estimated that in 2013 YouTube took in $5.6 billion in gross revenue, of which it kept around $2 billion.


eMarketer predicts that this year YouTube will make $1.1 billion in video ad revenue, up 39% over 2013. Total U.S. video ad spending is expected to double from $6 billion to $12 billion in 2018, and Wojcicki no doubt would like a large piece of that growing pie.

New data reveal momentum is on her side. There has been a 50% jump in the number of video hours viewed monthly from 6 billion in May 2013 to around 9 billion today. Around 300 hours of videos are uploaded per minute, triple the number from 2013.

Buttressed by that trend, YouTube is getting aggressive about growing up. The new Google Preferred ad program — which allows advertisers to target the top 5% of YouTube content across 14 categories ranging from automotive to gaming — recently secured enough commitments from major media agencies such as Digitas and Carat that it will soon roll out across much of Europe.

On Tuesday, the third wave of Google's talent-touting Beacon campaign launches with a focus on two YouTube channels: SciShow and Video Game High School. Both will benefit from a blitz of promotions. Last summer, YouTube plastered the faces of some of its biggest stars on print and video ads, including teen fashion expert Bethany Mota (7 million followers on her YouTube Channel) and the duo behind Rap Battles (10 million).

As an Internet star with a giant fan base, Bethany Mota, 18, promises to go far on public vote alone.

And finally, a new YouTube Space studio opens up soon in New York, packed with gear and advice for promising video mavens, joining similar facilities in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo.

"It was obvious to me quickly that YouTube had grown from being a place to upload amateur video to a place you could build a business," says Wojcicki, who was instrumental in pushing for the 2006 acquisition of YouTube for $1.6 billion. (If her name sounds familiar, her sister Anne, founder of biotech firm 23andMe, married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2007; the couple has separated.)

"The place we really want to work is in helping stars become even more successful," says Wojcicki, who routinely makes the list of Silicon Valley's most powerful executives and this year is 19 on Vanity Fair's annual New Establishment list, up from 36 last year. "How do we invest in them, promote them? That's our job."

And not a moment too soon. A summertime survey by Variety revealed that the five "most influential figures among Americans ages 13-18 are all YouTube faves," led by two comedy duos, Smosh and the Fine Bros.

OPENING THE DOORS TO TOP TALENT

While Wojcicki is complimentary about YouTube's outgoing leader, Salar Kamangar, she has not hesitated to put a more open stamp on the company. Approachable and humble, Wojcicki holds weekly meetings with the YouTube team and has invited a number of stars to share their stories on campus.

"She was quick to make us feel acknowledged," Peter Shukoff, Rap Battles' Nice Peter says to Lloyd Ahlquist's EpicLloyd. "The fact that she has children is something she listed as an asset in coming to YouTube, and I think that's right on target. You have to understand the younger generation."

Shukoff says Wojcicki encouraged him to be candid during a recent visit to the company's San Bruno campus, just south of San Francisco, and his response was a measured caution to not forget the as-yet-unknown YouTube creator.

"My concerns are theoretical, but I just wouldn't want them to stop focusing on the small independent makers, because that's where we all started," he says. "They need to keep the pathways open to someone in a bedroom on a budget."

Wojcicki is adamant that's part of the broader plan.

"The question is, 'How do I help YouTube scale to the next generation of opportunity,' and that means we need to appeal to both the person who films things as their hobby as well as professional media companies who want to use our platform," she says.

A CHANCE TO SWEETEN THE POT FOR CREATORS

A possible chink in YouTube's approach is a tough revenue-sharing model for creators, says Geoff Yang, a partner at Redpoint Ventures. "You can build an audience on YouTube, but building a business is hard," says Yang. "(YouTube) takes 45% of the rev-share, which makes it tough unless your numbers are huge."

Wrote Yang in a blog post in December: "The time has come for YouTube and Google to not just seed those creating content for its platform, it must provide the infrastructure, support and financial model to turn those audiences into large, profitable businesses."

That may prove especially true if Yahoo looks to lure YouTube creators with a more generous rev-share model using its Tumblr platform, as has been speculated on by tech news site Re/code.

Wojcicki says, "We're hiring people who can fulfill that mission, mostly on the technical side right now." One move involved bringing over Udi Manber from Google. As YouTube's new vice president of search and discovery, Manber's job is to improve the way YouTube videos are sourced and delivered to consumers.

"If we know you like car-racing videos, we should be able to find those for you and serve them up in a compelling way,," says Wojcicki.

Susan Wojcicki, 46, CEO of YouTube.

Watching her own children's habits — Wojcicki is now pregnant with a fifth child — also has clued her in to generational differences among YouTube viewers.

"People my age were used to entertainment, namely television, being in the living room, where for my kids it's portable and it's everywhere," she says.

In some ways, the challenges Wojcicki faces recall those she confronted when she took on the task of helping a popular search engine make money.

"When (Google co-founder) Larry (Page) asked me to step in at YouTube, I didn't think about it long," she says, smiling. "I thought, 'Here's a chance to do this again, to build another big thing for Google.'"

ABOUT SUSAN WOJCICKI, 46

WHAT: CEO, YouTube; parent company Google started in her garage

WHAT WAS AN EARLY PASSION OF YOURS? "Photography. Taking pictures, developing them in dark rooms, the whole thing. I really loved it, and did it in high school and in college (at Harvard)."

DID YOU KNOW YOU WOULD END UP IN TECH? "I wasn't that interested when I first got started. For me, the lightbulb moment was when I saw technology was really creative. No one told me that, I just discovered that. 'Wow, I can build things.' And it was social, you're working in teams, which I like."

WHAT'S YOUR ADVICE FOR WOULD-BE YOUTUBE STARS: "I recommend creators to try different video styles and see the feedback you're getting from the users. You can figure out what the reaction is from your fans. Also, the fans do remember what you say, so you need to be authentic and true to your audience."

USA TODAY's Change Agents series highlights innovators and entrepreneurs looking to change business and culture with their vision. E-mail Marco della Cava atmdellacava@usatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter:@marcodellacava

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