Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, retires after nine years
Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, is leaving the position after nine years. Her decision to “start a new era centred on my household, wellness, and personal responsibilities I’m enthusiastic about” was announced in a blog post.
Neal Mohan, the platform’s chief product officer, will take over as CEO of the Google-owned company.
“We have a fantastic management team in place at YouTube, so I feel inclined to do this,” Ms. Wojcicki said. “This is the right moment for me, and I feel able to do this,” she added. She praised Mr. Mohan’s leadership of YouTube Music, Premium, and Shorts, as well as his efforts in developing YouTube TV, on her blog.
Ms. Wojcicki announced she will “take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet” at the request of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
In 1998, Ms. Wojcicki got involved with Google when its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, opened a business in the garage of her Silicon Valley home. A year later, she was named the organization’s first marketing manager.
She has worked for Google for about 25 years and was ranked number 16 out of the company’s original 20 workers.
During her time at YouTube, Ms. Wojcicki has come under fire from the general public for the way the site handles content moderation, the propagation of false material, and persistent privacy issues about children.
The spread of false material on YouTube, according to fact-checking organisations throughout the world, is not being curbed enough.
The online video platform had recently passed the one billion user mark when she joined in 2014. Currently, YouTube has 2.5 billion subscribers worldwide, and its creators, also known as YouTubers, are able to make a living off of each of their separate channels.
The highest-paid content creator on YouTube was Jimmy Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast.
In 2022, the young American made £45 million ($54 million), more than any other YouTube producer in the platform’s history, according to the latest projections from Forbes magazine.
Ms. Wojcicki is the newest high-profile tech leader to resign from long-standing positions.
Her resignation comes after those of Jeff Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021; Sheryl Sandberg, who left Facebook in 2022; and Parag Agrawal, who departed Twitter last year as part of a shake-up prompted by new leader Elon Musk.