Management & Careers
YouTube's Susan Wojcicki on Transforming the Video Service
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki spoke to The Wall Street Journal about her management style, how often she skips the ad, and which viral star is her favorite: Keyboard Cat or Sneezing Panda. Photo: Jake Nicol/The Wall Street Journal
Jack Nicas
@jacknicas
jnicas
Jack.Nicas@dowjones.com
Updated June 8, 2016 12:02 am ET
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Susan Wojcicki holds a unique place in the history of the technology industry. These days she plays a key role in the future of media and entertainment, too.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented three rooms and the garage in Ms. Wojcicki's home near here in September 1998, the same month they incorporated Google Inc. A year later, the co-founders hired her. She soon launched Google's fledgling advertising business, which became one of the biggest moneymakers in the history of commerce. She also urged the company, now a unit of Alphabet Inc., to acquire YouTube back in 2006.
Now, as YouTube's chief executive, the 47-year-old Ms. Wojcicki's next task is turning the video hub into a business.
YouTube boasts more than one billion users but little to no profit. She leads several big initiatives aimed at making the platform profitable, including a push into virtual reality, live programming, and a $10-a-month ad-free subscription service launched in October.
YouTube remains a dominant force in online video, with more than 180 million unique viewers on traditional computers in February, compared with about 81 million viewers on the No. 2 service, Facebook Inc., according to research firm comScore. (The figures don't include mobile devices, which the company says account for most YouTube views.)