Sundar Pichai puts spotlight on YouTube, Google Maps at Q3 earnings call

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, stated that YouTube and Google Maps have played crucial roles in boosting the company’s revenue. He mentioned that for the first time in the past four quarters, YouTube's revenue surpassed $50 billion, while Google Maps has now surpassed 2 billion users. Pichai indicated that the company's investments in artificial intelligence have been fruitful, attracting more users to engage with services powered by Gemini AI.

YouTube’s phenomenal rise

“For the first time ever, YouTube’s combined ad and subscription revenue over the past four quarters has surpassed $50 billion,” Pichai said during the earnings call. While Google does not report overall revenues of YouTube, which it acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion, the new figure, combining both ad sales and revenue from subscriptions, means the video platform is now the company’s fastest-growing service. YouTube has also surpassed its close rival Netflix in revenue, which reported $37.6 billion for the last four quarters.

Pichai said that YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket, and YouTube Music Premium are “driving subscription growth” for YouTube, which recently introduced multiview and a new option for creators, allowing them to organise content into episodes and seasons.

More Google Maps users

During the call, Pichai said Google Maps is the “latest product to surpass the 2 billion user milestone.”  Previously at the I/O, the company said only six products had crossed 2 billion monthly users, namely, Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Play Store, and YouTube. Google Maps, as well as the other six platforms, use Gemini models. Pichai noted that while the apps have “done their first versions of incorporating Gemini, and there’s an aggressive roadmap ahead for 2025.”

Other Google updates

Pichai said recent additions to Search, such as AI Overviews, Circle to Search, and new Lens features, are changing how people search for different things. Circle to Search, specifically, is now available on over 150 million Android devices within a year of its debut on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. Lens is now used for over 20 billion visual searches per month, he said.