YouTube has hit a new milestone, with over two billion viewers logged into the service. As CNET reports, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced the news in a presentation to advertisers on Thursday. The site has been hovering just under two billion active monthly users since February, and has just tipped over the line.
It’s not all rose-tinted filters, though. The share price of Google’s parent company Alphabet plunged on Monday following news of slowing revenue growth – partly due to a drop in ad-clicks from YouTube.
“My top priority is responsibility, said Wojcicki in a post on YouTube’s Creator Blog earlier this week. “We’re always balancing maintaining an open platform with managing our community guidelines. But to combat a number of concerning incidents we’ve seen in the last few months, we’ve had to take more aggressive action.”
For years, YouTube has grappled with balancing the “brand safety” expected by its advertisers versus the presumption of freedom of speech and creative license held by YouTube’s uploaders. At the same time, YouTube has faced ongoing scrutiny that it fails to adequately rein in misinformation and shocking videos, like footage of a deadly New Zealand mosque shooting in March.
