susan wojcicki
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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down
Wojcicki, who took over as YouTube CEO in 2014, is starting "a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I'm passionate about."
YouTube reverses course on 'verification' -- you will keep your badges
Yesterday YouTube announced plans to change its policy around channel verification status. In a move to follow other social networks, the company said changes tying approval to authenticity and prominence would mean some might lose their tag, and would have to go through appeals to keep it. After a quick and loud backlash to the plan YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki apologized, and YouTube just announced "Channels that currently have verification will now keep it without appeal." The plan is still to reopen its process for verification next month for all channels that have over 100,000 subscribers, with an eye toward stamping the tag on channels that are both "authentic" and "complete." YouTube Support: What's happening with channel verification? We won't remove verification based on the criteria we announced yesterday. If you received an email that your channel will no longer be verified, you no longer need to submit an appeal. You'll keep verification on your channel. As always, we'll still remove verification if we find that a channel is attempting to impersonate another creator or brand. If you change your channel's name, the renamed channel won't be verified and you'll need to reapply.
YouTube CEO apologizes for channel verification mess (updated)
YouTube came under fire Thursday after changes to its verification program meant several prominent YouTubers will lose the coveted status. CEO Susan Wojcicki has since apologized for the "frustration and hurt that we caused with our new approach to verification." Update (6:25 PM ET): Wojcicki has announced that currently verified channels will keep their badges without needing to appeal.
YouTube execs reportedly shrugged off warnings about toxic videos
YouTube leaders ignored proposals to alter recommendations to stamp out toxic videos and to tackle conspiracy theories, several former and current employees told Bloomberg. Executives were more concerned with keeping viewers engaged, according to the report.
Long-time Google employee Susan Wojcicki is the new head of YouTube
Introducing the new head of YouTube: Susan Wojcicki, former SVP of ads and commerce at Google, who boasts some serious connections in the tech sphere. Mountain View has confirmed the news, and the outgoing YouTube head Salar Kamangar will reportedly work on other projects within the company. Truly, few Google employees can claim roots as legendary as Wojcicki's; she was hire number 16, who famously rented her garage in Menlo Park to founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Oh, and it just so happens that her sister, 23andme founder Anne Wojcicki, was married to Brin until late last year. Sound like a soap opera story line? Maybe so, but Susan's new role at YouTube could help strengthen the video service's ad revenue strategy. In an email statement shared with Re/code, Google CEO Larry Page said: Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing. YouTube is a billion person global community curating videos for every possibility. Anyone uploading their creative content can reach the whole world and even make money. Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love. "Improving YouTube" will likely entail new ad formats -- possibly some that move away from the TrueView in-stream commercials you're used to skipping after five seconds. With the TrueView model, advertisers only pay when their spots are viewed. YouTube reportedly brought in $5.6 billion in ad revenue last year, and Wojcicki will no doubt be focused on pushing up those numbers.
Google refocuses under Larry Page; Eric Schmidt says Microsoft is bigger competition than Facebook
Now that the dust has settled from the Google CEO shuffle that will see Larry Page take the top spot from Eric Schmidt in April, it's time for the profiles of the company to hit -- and Bloomberg BusinessWeek is up first with a piece that examines the company's past and future challenges, as well the key leaders of what it calls "Google 3.0": Vic Gundotra, who's heading up a now-not-so-secret social networking initiative called Google +1, Android chief Andy Rubin, YouTube head Salar Kamangar, advertising lead Susan Wojcicki, Chrome head Sundar Pichai, and search leads Udi Manber and Amit Singhal. It's all very fascinating, and it includes some great anecdotes, like Vic Gundotra and Phil Schiller getting into an argument about user location-tracking so heated that Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs had to intervene. Yeah, it's like that. Speaking of Eric Schmidt, he was in Davos this week, and he had some choice words for reporters on Google's competition -- and it's not Facebook. "Microsoft has more cash, more engineers, more global reach. We see competition from Microsoft every day," says Eric, while Facebook "has clearly stated they don't want to get into the search business. Facebook users tend to use Google search." As for Apple, he gave the usual line about both partnering with and competing with Cupertino, while taking a moment to laud Steve Jobs as "the most successful CEO in the world anywhere," who's built an "elegant, scalable, closed system" while "Google is attempting to do something with a completely different approach." Spoken like a true frenemy, we suppose. Check out the source links to read both pieces.
