YouTube trains its sights on traditional TV: 'It's a no-growth business'

YouTube is a decade old, and for the first half of its history at least, was a service for watching online videos on your computer. In 2015, as it looks forward to the next 10 years, YouTube’s emphasis is firmly on a smaller screen. “For us, most of our focus is on mobile: product development for mobile, content development for mobile, making sure mobile video works on carrier networks all around the world. It’s all mobile, mobile, mobile,” says Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content and business operations. “It’s a very difficult place to figure out, yet at the same time a massive opportunity, because consumers love engaging with those devices,” says Kyncl. “We think it’s all about mobile, and that’s where we’re putting most of our efforts across the board … We think that phone is the remote control for your life, and it’s definitely the remote control for your video.”

According to YouTube’s own stats, half of its views are already on mobile devices, with mobile “watch time” growing nearly 100 percent in the past year, compared to growth in overall YouTube watch time of 50 percent in that period. “If you’re an advertiser, you’ve really been able to get your reach and influence over the last 70 years by partnering with TV channels. That is where you get your reach, and that’s what influences culture,” he said. “Today, there is a very growing influence on culture from the Internet firms, YouTube included, and there’s a tremendous amount of growth on mobile. If advertisers want to capture the future of video and participate in this growth, they should partner with the firms that are doing incredibly well in mobile video. We’re certainly one of those.”