YouTube gets a new leadership: Susan Wojcicki announced on Thursday that she would resign from her position at the head of the video site, which belongs to the Internet group Google. She wrote in a blog post that she wanted to start a "new chapter" and focus on "my family, health and personal projects that I am passionate about." After almost 25 years at Google, this is now the right time, said the 54-year-old manager.
Roland Lindner
Business correspondent in New York.
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Wojcicki has long been one of the best-known women in the American technology industry. At Google, she's held a number of different leadership positions, and she also holds a special place in the company's history. In 1998, she rented out the garage and a few rooms in her Menlo Park home in California's Silicon Valley to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company's two founders.
It was Google's first headquarters, and it was from here that the company's rise to become a tech giant began. Wojcicki joined in the early days and became the sixteenth employee. She also has another personal connection to Google, her sister Anne was formerly married to Sergey Brin.
Internet search and advertising business
Over the course of her Google career, Susan Wojcicki's responsibilities included Internet search and advertising. She also played a key role in several major acquisitions of the group, including the acquisition of YouTube. Google acquired the video site in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The price was considered very high at the time, especially since Youtube was not yet two years old. But the video site quickly turned out to be a stroke of luck, over the years it became an important pillar of the company. In 2022, it brought in advertising revenue of $29.2 billion.
However, it has recently been a weak point in the Group, sales have now shrunk for two quarters in a row. Wojcicki's successor is to be Neal Mohan, YouTube's current head of product. Wojicicki wants to keep Google and its parent holding company Alphabet in an advisory role in the future.