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YouTube has 1.8 billion users logged in and watching every month

YouTube doesn't have a playbook for operating at such scale, CEO Susan Wojcicki said, but the company is committed to being "on the right side of history."

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicky gestures on stage with the YouTube logo behind her

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki pitches the service and its shows to advertisers at an annual New York event called Brandcast. 

Noam Galai/Getty Images for YouTube

YouTube has 1.8 billion people registered viewers every month, not counting any people who watch the massive video service without logging in. 

"It's incredibly important to me and to everyone at YouTube that we grow responsibly," Wojcicki said Thursday, speaking at a New York presentation for advertisers known as a Newfront. "There is not a playbook for how open platforms operate at our scale…it's critical that we're on the right side of history."

YouTube has been grappling for more than a year to balance the needs of its advertisers with its uploaders' expectations for creative freedom. Last year, an outcry about commercials running next to offensive videos sparked an advertiser boycott. When YouTube responded by more aggressively pulling ads off sensitive clips, it ended up outraging some uploaders who lost their moneymaking power -- an event dubbed "Adpocalypse."

The sheer scale of YouTube -- 400 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute -- makes it hard for the company to stay ahead of abuse. But that massive scale is what makes YouTube an attractive place for advertising, the foundation of its revenue. 

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