After nearly a decade, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced Thursday that she would step down from the top job.
As one of Google‘s longest-serving employees and YouTube’s captain for the last nine years, her departure to ‘focus on family and personal projects’ will send ripples through the video sharing platform, which is the second most-visited website in the world after Google itself.
Her replacement, Neal Mohan, joins at a crucial moment for the company, with Google/YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. slashing 12,000 jobs as the company weathers a period of internal and external change.
MailOnline takes a look at who Mohan is and what challenges he will be expected to tackle in the new role as SVP and head of YouTube.
Neal Mohan will take over the top role at YouTube amid a period of significant change
Who is Neal Mohan?
Stanford graduate Neal Mohan was always a likely candidate for the YouTube presidency. He is presently YouTube’s chief product officer and has been a reliable deputy to Wojcicki in his seven years in the role.
Mohan’s senior career begins with online advertising company DoubleClick, the upper ranks of which he climbed through at the turn of the millennium. Settling as SVP in Strategy and Product Management in 2005, he built the strategic plans needed to ultimately sell the company to Google for $3.1bn in March 2008.
Somebody at Google – YouTube’s parent company – took notice and Mohan moved over that month into another senior advertising role, managing the company’s product offerings for DoubleClick, but also AdSense, AdMob, the Google Display Network and – crucially – YouTube.
When Twitter came knocking, Google offered him $100mn in stock options to stay – which he did, for a while. Mohan worked across a number of boards and committees during his time at Google, before hanging up his hat and moving into the Chief Product Officer role at YouTube.
A background in advertising has been instrumental in his success, responsible for the overall business success and growth of the company as it battles competitors in both video streaming and TikTok-inspired ‘Shorts’.
In his seven-or-so years with YouTube, the 49-year-old has familiarized himself with the breadth of YouTube’s products, media formats, subscription services and partnerships.
This breadth will be vital after the promotion as the company tries to scale back on cuts and grow out of the uneasy situation in which big tech finds itself.
Neal Mohan will succeed Susan Wojcicki after just over seven years working at YouTube
What will he do?
Mohan follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, who was branded ‘the most important in advertising’ when she became YouTube CEO in 2014. As Wojcicki worked on creating suitable spaces for different users interested in family, gaming and music content, Mohan will likely focus on retaining those users through tailored offerings as competitors catch up.
In her open letter to staff, Wojcicki identified her Mohan’s role in helping to launch products including YouTube TV, YouTube Music, Premium, and Shorts, while also leading on ‘Trust and Safety’ – a core concern for the company if it is to leave behind former criticism.
Michael Bush, Managing Director of leading digital marketing agency Climb Online, said: ‘Having delivered a successful European growth strategy for social media channels like TikTok, it’s clear to see where YouTube have failed in recent years, where others have innovated and progressed.
‘Following the rapid adoption of TikTok, Instagram were quick to respond with the launch of Reels, yet YouTube remained behind the curve with Shorts, which they have only just monetised for ad revenue.
‘Neal Mohan now has an opportunity to come in with a fresh approach and deliver real innovation, which is required for the channel to remain competitive in the ever-evolving digital space, currently dominated by video.’
What future challenges lie ahead of YouTube?
YouTube has suffered financially in the last year.
In 2021, the company reported a 46% revenue boost year-on-year, despite audiences being glued to their phones indoors for much of the year prior.
But shrinking ad business saw growth tail off, with revenue growing by only 1.39% between 2021 and 2022.
These trends are sector-wide; Microsoft’s search and news advertising business shrank each quarter of the past year as companies cut back on their advertising and marketing campaigns.
Inevitably, free services that earn much of their revenue from digital advertising suffer the biggest blows – like YouTube. YouTube will either have to weather the storm, entice advertisers back with better deals, or make paid-for services like YouTube Premium more attractive to ordinary users.
YouTube will not be the only tech company looking for that competitive edge. Addressing the competition will be a priority as the brand looks to separate itself from the evolving forms of social media-style platforms like TikTok, streaming services like Twitch and video hosts like Netflix.
Rajesh Namase, tech-blogger and co-founder of the tech news website TechRT, said: ‘One of the key challenges facing YouTube is how to continue to grow its audience and user engagement in the face of increased competition from other video-sharing platforms.
‘Mohan is well positioned to help YouTube identify and implement new features and innovations that will keep users engaged and coming back to the platform.
‘His experience with Google’s advertising products may also help YouTube find new ways to monetize its platform, which has been a priority for the company in recent years.’
The company will also have some work to do in tidying up its own reputation.
Regional politics in the late 2010s might have stoked discussion around ‘fake news’ and the meddling of foreign actors, but the pandemic drew attention to the sheer scale of misinformation online.
YouTube came under heavy fire in 2020 for struggling to moderate content published on the site, especially discourse around Covid and vaccines.
Researchers concluded that ‘over one-quarter of the most viewed YouTube videos on Covid-19 contained misleading information, reaching millions of viewers worldwide.’
Mohan has been vocal in recognizing and addressing the problem since, speaking to Times Radio in May 2022 about how YouTube would look to combat misinformation around the war in Ukraine.
There is a wider conversation to be had about content moderation – and Mohan knows it. As CPO, he played a key role in updating policies that would aim to curb violent extremist content – an issue recognized by the company for years. At the same time, YouTube has learned that too much moderation can make it hard for its users to make a living.
The former head of YouTube’s product team will have a good basis from which to tackle these issues.
Neal Mohan, then Chief Product Officer of YouTube, speaking at the Future of Digital Conference in New York in 2016
New horizons
Neal Mohan has much ahead of him to steer the ship back on course.
Reigning back control might be one way to look at YouTube’s challenges and opportunities under their new leader:
Part of this will be in owning the discourse on their own website and finding a solution to misinformation and hate speech.
Mohan will also have a role to play in controlling the narrative with advertisers, presenting YouTube as a legitimate business opportunity with plans for the future.
And finally he must decide what he wants that future to look like, looking at the possibility of more layoffs and stagnation while also considering the areas the company would like to grow as it sets itself apart from the competition.
