YouTube Has Not Made As Much Money As You'd Expect

As the world’s biggest video streaming platform, YouTube’s contribution to the music culture cannot be highlighted. On a less brighter side, however, it now seems like YouTube was not as profitable as everyone assumed. According to a report from The Information, gross revenue for Google from YouTube was $3.5 billion in 2013. After payments to partners, net revenue was only $1.5 billion. eMarketer estimated that YouTube would generate $5.6 billion in ad revenue for 2013. Although Google owns YouTube, there has never been any specified the revenue figures for the streaming service within either its quarterly or annual earnings reports. YouTube’s probably sole competitor, Netflix, has generated more than $4 billion in revenue last year due to its premium content. Although YouTube turned in a profit last year, it sure underperformed financially.