YouTube is not worried by competition as it helps raise its game, according to Cécile Frot-Coutaz, head of YouTube, EMEA.
Speaking in a keynote and Q&A at IBC 2019, she added that the company uses the best technology for creators to find audiences and vice versa. Its tech team is in house and “to have the best tech you can only do it at scale”.
Frot-Coutaz dismissed the suggestion that YouTube is becoming a broadcaster, saying that at heart it is a tech platform.
Speaking more generally, she said that there had been a 70% increase in the number of YouTube users who follow and interact with creator channels in the past year.
There are now 1 billion certified devices globally that access YouTube and over 250 million hours of YouTube content is being watched every day.
Yet despite opportunities there are also challenges faced by the company. Audience measurement remains difficult, though a system to measure YouTube viewing side by side is now in place in Germany, and piracy remains an issue despite $100 million having been invested in content ID technology.
