Letter from Susan: Our 2021 Priorities

Creators are building next generation media companies that impact the economy's overall success. According to an Oxford Economics report, YouTube's creative ecosystem contributed approximately $16 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2019, supporting the equivalent of 345,000 full time jobs. We’re also seeing real impact in other countries around the globe. The UK in 2019 saw approximately £1.4 billion contributed to the British GDP and the equivalent of 30,000 full time jobs. And in France, there was an estimated €515 million contributed to the French GDP and the equivalent of 15,000 full time jobs.

Every creator has their own unique story to tell about what motivated them to start their channel. Six years ago, Brandon Reed was struggling to make ends meet as a single father. He wanted to go back to school to study animation and give his kids a better life, but he couldn’t afford it. He learned to animate by watching YouTube videos late at night after his kids were in bed, and then launched his own full-length cartoons. He still remembers the first check he got from YouTube for $100. Today, Brandon works full time through his YouTube channel and his animations have more than 250 million views worldwide.

Brandon is just one of many creators around the world who has benefited from finding a home on YouTube. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies.

2. Additional sources of revenue

Our Music and Premium Subscriptions have been growing quickly, reaching more than 30 million paid Members in the third quarter of last year. And creators and artists are finding other new ways to connect with their audiences and diversify their revenue. Last year, the number of channels making the majority of their revenue from Super Chat, Super Stickers or channel memberships on YouTube tripled. Indian creator Rachana Ranade uses her channel to help people learn more about financial literacy. She enabled memberships last year, and it's now the majority of her YouTube revenue - more than $100,000.

3. Supporting the success of all creators

As we grow the creator economy, we also want to make sure that all creators can participate in these opportunities. We've heard concerns from creators across various communities, particularly in the Black community, about their experiences on the platform. But since we don’t ask creators to identify themselves, it’s difficult to understand what’s happening at scale for different communities on YouTube. We’ve been working to address that. 

This year, we’ll start asking creators in the U.S. on a voluntary basis to provide us with their gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. This information will help us identify potential gaps in our systems that might impact creators. As we gather this data, we’ll look closely at how content from different communities is treated in search and discovery and monetization. We think this effort will ultimately benefit the entire YouTube community, and we appreciate the partnership of the Black, LGBTQ+, and Latinx creator communities who have shared their perspectives with us to help make YouTube a better place for everyone.

Living up to our responsibilities

It’s a priority to continue to update our approach to responsibility so people find high-quality information when they come to our platform. We’re always working to strike the right balance between openness and responsibility as we meet the guidelines set by governments around the world. Our approach to responsibility is to remove content experts say could lead to real world harm, raise up authoritative and trusted content, reduce views of borderline content, and reward creators who meet our even higher bar for monetization. 

In addition to our extensive work around the U.S. election, we also took an especially strong position with regard to the pandemic. Our teams have consulted with more than 85 local health authorities around the world to help connect people with trusted information. Combined with the efforts of creators to spread the word, we're making an impact - we’ve served over 400 billion impressions of information panels that relate to COVID-19.

We’ve updated our policies to remove egregious medical misinformation about COVID-19 to prohibit things like saying the virus is a hoax or promoting medically unsubstantiated cures in place of seeking treatment. We’ve continued to make updates to our COVID-19 policies to stay current with the science, and we’ve removed more than more than half a million videos under these policies since February.

Racial Justice: We remain committed to our racial justice work and ensuring all creators can thrive on our platform. One important change we’ve identified is better shielding creators from harmful comments. We’ve begun testing a new filter in YouTube Studio for potentially inappropriate comments that have been automatically held for review, so creators have the option not to read them. Our creators are the heart of YouTube and supporting creator wellbeing is fundamental to everything we do. We’re committed to taking the steps needed to live up to that responsibility. 

And through the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund, we’re bringing important stories about Black experiences around the world to YouTube, emphasizing the intellectual power, dignity, and joy of Black voices, and educating viewers on racial justice. Earlier this month we announced the #YouTubeBlack Voices Class of 2021: 133 creators and artists from the United States, Kenya, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and Nigeria. We’re excited to help amplify their stories this year.

Next month, we’ll celebrate Black History Month with new YouTube Originals, including an episode of BookTube with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and a new season of Glad You Asked that will examine questions around the impact of systemic racism in our communities.

Helping people learn new skills 

One of the things about YouTube that makes me proudest is the role we play in enabling people to learn new skills. I hear so many stories about people who learned something new on our platform, so it’s no surprise that 77 percent of respondents to an Ipsos study say they used YouTube during 2020 to learn a new skill.¹

This trend has grown during the pandemic as we’ve worked at home, schooled at home and adapted our lives to quarantine. In fact, videos with the word “beginner” in the title have been viewed more than a billion times since mid-March. Last year, I used YouTube to learn how to cut hair, fix my fridge, do more yoga, research bitcoin, and help with physics homework.

Creators are finding ways to help us meet the challenges of quarantine. Crash Course and Arizona State University (ASU) created a series called Study Hall that focuses on critical academic subjects like writing composition, algebra and more, breaking them down into easy-to-follow formats. Eddie Woo developed videos to help teachers learn how to get started on YouTube. And Mayuko, a Software Engineer who traded a Silicon Valley job for a YouTube channel, helped people with technology and career advice. 

This year, we want to help even more people learn new skills on YouTube. When I think about how YouTube can change people’s lives, the story of Josh Carroll stands out to me. Josh is an Army veteran who was working as a janitor when he taught himself advanced math on YouTube and then became a physicist. 

The regulatory landscape

There’s another area that will be a significant focus in 2021 - regulation. We’ve benefited from partnerships with governments on critical issues, like preventing violent extremism and coordinated influence operations on our platform. Last year, these partnerships were incredibly helpful as we worked together to provide people with accurate information during the pandemic. We'll continue to partner with policymakers on issues that impact our business and workforce, like immigration, education, infrastructure, and healthcare. 

As we continue these efforts, tech companies are also facing increased scrutiny and regulatory action. In past letters, I raised issues about Article 17 (previously 13), the EU copyright directive. Creators speaking out made a significant difference in making the language more workable for creators. Thank you for your help! There are still areas of concern, and we’re working closely with policymakers as European countries turn the legislation into national laws. 

There has recently been significant debate on Section 230, which enables us to both keep YouTube open and allow a large amount of content on the internet as well as take the actions necessary to protect our platform. Both sides of the political spectrum are interested in modifying it, but there are diametrically opposed views on the problem and a lack of consensus on what should be done. 

The European Union recently introduced the Digital Services Act (DSA) that could have major implications for online speech. We’ll update you as this progresses, and we’re also working with governments like the United Kingdom as they consider legislation to take on harmful content. 

This year, we’ll continue to advocate on behalf of creators and work closely with governments to make sure policymakers understand the potential impact their decisions could have on all of you.