A senior YouTube executive has said subscription service will launch in multiple markets.
Chief business officer Robert Kyncl told Les Echos that while advertising accounts for the majority of its revenue, the subscription segment is the fasted growing area. “Our advertising revenue accounts for most of the total, of course, but our paid segment is the fastest growing segment. It has been launched in a limited number of countries,” he said. “We have no launch date for France, but this service will be launched this year on dozens of markets in 2018.” Mindful of his audience, Kyncl added that France was a important market for the Google-owned video business.
YouTube Red, which removes advertising and provides some subscriber-exclusive content, has been seen is some quarters as struggling. Kyncl says that its $10 pricepoint puts it on a par with Apple Music, but he sees the differentiation between music and video is something that is still to be developed.
Kyncl told Les Echos that the channels found on YouTube Red may not immediately be replicated elsewhere. He said there were currently 3 million content creators on YouTube in Europe.
On advertising, where brands including Proctor & Gamble pulled out after concerns about the content their product was being associated with, Kyncl said Google would be publishing regular reports on problematic content, as is already the case with Google Search.
