YouTube in Turmoil as CEO Susan Wojcicki Steps Down

After nine years as the head of the biggest online video platform in the world, Susan Wojcicki is leaving her position. To “open a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” according to 54-year-old Wojcicki, I’m stepping down from my position. On Thursday, Wojcicki said that Neil Mohan, with whom she has long-term ties, will take over as CEO of YouTube in an email to YouTube staff members.

Wojcicki, one of the most accomplished female leaders in the internet sector, served as senior vice president for ad products at Google before taking over as CEO of YouTube in 2014. Wojcicki held positions at Intel and Bain & Company before joining Google.

But Wojcicki will also be known as the first landlord of Google. Wojcicki rented the garage of her Menlo Park, California house to the co-founders of Google for $1,700 per month shortly after they turned their search engine into a corporation in 1998. Before moving Google into a more official workplace, Page, and Brin, who were both 25 at the time, spent five months fine-tuning their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage. Later, they convinced Wojcicki to join their business; in her resignation announcement, she calls it “one of the best decisions of my life.”

During Wojcicki’s career at Google, Brin became her brother-in-law when he married her sister, Anne, in 2007. However, Brin and Anne Wojcicki divorced in 2015.

Wojcicki’s resignation occurs as YouTube is going through one of its most tough times since Google purchased the video service in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Despite the fact that YouTube has amassed billions of users and has become financially successful, with $29 billion in ad revenue in 2018, the video platform’s ad revenue fell 5% from the prior year in the final six months of 2022, the first significant decline since Alphabet, Google’s parent company, started disclosing YouTube’s financial data. Alphabet’s stock price has decreased by approximately 10% since it released its most recent quarterly report two weeks ago, as analysts fear the downturn will continue this year.

In addition, Wojcicki is departing just days before the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments in a case that may jeopardize YouTube’s freewheeling approach, which has long been one of its biggest strengths. The complaint was launched by the family of an American woman who died in a 2015 Islamic State attack in Paris. They claimed that YouTube’s algorithms helped the terror organization recruit new members. Experts warn the consequences might not just kill YouTube but also upend the entire internet if the court rules that computer corporations can be held accountable for anything posted on their websites.

“I’m pleased to support Neal as he takes on his new role and will continue to work with the outstanding teams at YouTube and across Alphabet in my new position,” Wojcicki said while announcing that she would remain with YouTube and Alphabet in an advisory capacity.