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YouTube Ownership and History
YouTube is owned by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, through its subsidiary Google LLC. This ownership structure has remained unchanged since Google acquired YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock, a deal widely chronicled in reports such as the history of YouTube acquisition published by NBC News and the Alphabet corporate ownership breakdown explained by Replayed.
The Founding Story
YouTube began on February 14, 2005, created by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Their vision and early steps are documented in resources like the Founderoo profile on the YouTube founders and SurgeGraph’s deep dive into the origins of YouTube.
Working from a small garage in San Mateo, the founders built a platform focused on making video sharing effortless. Inspiration reportedly came from the inability to easily find specific clips online. Moments like Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl incident and video footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. These details are described in the SurgeGraph article on YouTube’s real founding story as well as the VdoCipher timeline of YouTube’s creation.
On April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim uploaded the first video, titled “Me at the Zoo,” a moment documented in the YouTube history timeline by Office Timeline and explored again by El País in a 20 year retrospective on Jawed Karim. That brief clip symbolized the arrival of a new digital era.
YouTube launched its beta in May 2005 and fully opened in December. By September 2005, a Nike ad featuring Ronaldinho became the first video to cross one million views. This milestone is confirmed in the Office Timeline overview of YouTube milestones.
The Google Acquisition
Despite rapid growth, YouTube struggled by 2006. The platform was burning through cash, exhausting its server capacity, and fighting legal pressure from media companies over copyright. These challenges were explored in the Business Insider inside story of the YouTube acquisition and the SurgeGraph breakdown of why Google bought YouTube.
Several companies expressed interest in buying the platform. Microsoft, Viacom, News Corp. But the final race came down to Yahoo and Google. YouTube initially leaned toward Yahoo. The founders were hours from signing when they gave Google one final chance to match their offer. Google agreed to the proposed $1.65 billion. A number intentionally set 10 percent higher than eBay’s purchase of PayPal in 2002. This insider detail is described in the Business Insider oral history of the deal.
The final signatures took place in a Denny’s parking lot in Redwood City. YouTube CFO Gideon Yu and Google counsel David Drummond reviewed merger documents on the hood of a car until a police officer approached. Yu explained they were finalizing Google’s acquisition of YouTube, a moment recounted again in Business Insider’s detailed acquisition narrative.
Google announced the deal on October 9, 2006, and completed it on November 13, 2006. Analysts questioned the price. Mark Cuban called Google “crazy” for taking on lawsuits. Yet years later, sources like Investopedia’s retrospective on Google’s YouTube acquisition and The Ringer’s 10 year oral history of the deal show that the purchase became one of the smartest bets in tech history.
Current Ownership Structure
In 2015, Google restructured under a new parent company, Alphabet Inc., a shift detailed in the Wikipedia entry on Alphabet Inc. and the Business Model Analyst breakdown of Alphabet’s structure.
Under that structure.
Alphabet Inc. → Google LLC → YouTube
YouTube does not issue its stock. Its financials are consolidated into Alphabet’s reports. Alphabet’s investor disclosures, summarized in resources like MarketScreener’s shareholder overview and CanvasBusinessModel’s YouTube ownership analysis, reveal that YouTube generated $36.1 billion in ad revenue in 2024.
In Q3 2025, YouTube hit $10.26 billion in ad revenue, marking its first time surpassing $10 billion in any third quarter. This data is sourced from Music Business Worldwide’s Q3 2025 YouTube revenue report and Variety’s analysis of Alphabet’s earnings for Q3 2025.
Major Shareholders of Alphabet
Alphabet’s largest institutional shareholders include Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity, State Street, and T. Rowe Price. These holdings are detailed in MarketBeat’s institutional ownership records for Alphabet and MarketScreener’s shareholder breakdown.
But real control lies with cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They control over 51 percent of Alphabet’s voting power thanks to the company’s dual class share structure, even though they own only around 6.62 percent of total shares each. These governance details are laid out in Business Insider’s report on founder control at Alphabet, Investopedia’s dual class stock overview, and Vox’s analysis of Alphabet’s voting system.
Alphabet’s share structure includes.
- Class A shares: one vote
- Class B shares: ten votes, insider only
- Class C shares: no votes
Page holds around 19.95 million Class B shares, Brin around 19.3 million. Combined, they control over 83 percent of all Class B shares. Supporting documentation appears in Alphabet’s founder letters, Investopedia’s analysis of GOOG vs GOOGL, and the CII governance report on dual class companies.
Leadership
Neal Mohan became YouTube’s CEO in February 2023, succeeding Susan Wojcicki. His background and leadership vision are detailed in the Wikipedia entry on Neal Mohan, the Cannes Lions speaker profile on Mohan, and the Stratechery interview with Mohan about building YouTube for creators.
Wojcicki led YouTube for nine years and stepped down for family and health reasons, later passing away from lung cancer in 2024. Her departure and legacy are covered in BBC Technology’s report on Wojcicki stepping down and Fortune’s remembrance of her final message.
Above YouTube, Sundar Pichai serves as CEO of both Google and Alphabet. His role in integrating YouTube strategy is outlined in Alphabet’s annual meeting documentation and the BBC overview of Google leadership.
YouTube’s Valuation and Strategic Importance
If YouTube were spun into its own company, analysts estimate it would be worth between $472 billion and $550 billion. This valuation is supported by reports such as Variety’s 2025 YouTube valuation analysis, ValueSense’s valuation breakdown, and Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of YouTube’s revenue trajectory.
These assessments suggest YouTube represents nearly 30 percent of Alphabet’s total market cap.
MoffettNathanson projected that YouTube would become the number one media company by revenue in 2025, overtaking Disney. This projection appears in TubeFilter’s coverage of the analyst report and Finance Yahoo’s analysis of YouTube’s valuation.
YouTube earned an estimated $54.2 billion in total revenue in 2024, including more than $15 billion from subscription services like YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, and YouTube Music. Revenue patterns are documented in Music Business Worldwide, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, YouTube accounts for about 12.5 percent of all U.S. TV viewing time, surpassing Netflix and Disney+. This statistic has been reported by CNBC’s streaming market analysis and ValueSense’s media consumption recap.
YouTube has paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the past four years. These creator economy figures are outlined in the official YouTube blog’s history of online video as well as public commentary from Neal Mohan’s Instagram posts.
No Ownership Changes on the Horizon
Despite speculation that Alphabet could someday spin off YouTube, the company has shown no sign of doing so. Investor materials like Alphabet’s annual meeting site and CanvasBusinessModel’s ownership map confirm that YouTube remains one of Alphabet’s core assets.
It powers Alphabet’s advertising base, fuels AI development, and anchors consumer engagement across devices and markets. These strategic connections are emphasized in Social Media Examiner’s 2025 YouTube updates and CNBC’s reporting on Google’s media dominance.
The acquisition, once considered risky, has become a defining success. A $1.65 billion garage startup turned into a multi-hundred-billion-dollar cultural and economic engine shaping global video consumption. Alphabet continues to own and control YouTube fully, and no structural changes appear anywhere on the horizon.
