YouTube’s quiet evolution into the heart of Google

In the past, YouTube has always been treated as one of many parts of Google’s business: worth a shout-out, and maybe a nice data point if time permitted during an earnings call. This time around, it seemed to move more towards the center.

“Video is now baked into all of our products,” said Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, adding that video is especially important for advertising: “Video is a key language that brands speak.” Arora said that Google’s top 100 brand advertisers spent 50 percent more money on YouTube in 2012 than during the previous year. He reiterated that the site now generates more than 4 billion views a day. One new metric shared during the call was that 70 percent of YouTube’s in-stream ads are now what the company calls TrueView - ads that viewers can skip, and that advertisers only pay for if they’re not skipped.