Google parent surpasses 270 million paid subscriptions, driven by YouTube and Google One

Sundar Pichai was called to testify as part of a three-week trial aimed at determining how Google should restore competition to online search after Judge Amit Mehta ruled last year that the tech giant had illegally maintained a monopoly in the market

Google parent Alphabet has surpassed 270 million paid subscriptions, with YouTube and Google One as key drivers, chief executive Sundar Pichai said on April 24, highlighting new money-spinners for the search giant as it aims to diversify beyond advertising.

YouTube recently announced that it crossed over 125 million subscribers globally across Music and Premium services.

"Subscriptions is a big part of the (YouTube's) business. We continue to diversify our subscription options, recently expanding our Premium Lite pilot to the US, giving users a new way to enjoy most videos on YouTube ad-free" Pichai said during the company's earnings conference call.

Through Premium Lite, viewers will be able to watch ad-free videos across various categories such as gaming, comedy, cooking or learning. They will, however, see ads on music content, music videos, and Shorts. Consumers will also not be able to play videos in the background or download them for offline viewing.

In recent years, Google has also taken several steps to grow YouTube's subscription revenue, including a global crackdown on adblockers and hiking the prices of its premium subscription across several markets including India.

The tech giant also introduced a Google One AI Premium Plan last year, offering consumers access to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) features such as Gemini Advanced, a paid tier of its chatbot with access to its most capable models. The plan also includes deeper AI integration across Google apps like Gmail and Docs, ability to create high quality videos through the company's text-to-video model Veo 2, as well as early access to upcoming AI features.

Google's revenues from its subscription, platforms, and device businesses increased by 19 percent to $10.4 billion for the quarter, primarily driven by its subscription revenues, CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during the call. The company doesn't break out its subscriptions revenues.

"This growth was primarily driven by YouTube subscription offerings, followed by Google One, with growth and the number of subscribers being the biggest driver of revenue growth" Ashkenazi said.

Overall, Alphabet's revenues saw a 12 percent growth to $90.23 billion for the quarter. Net profit grew by 46 percent to $34.54 billion.

The company's core advertising business saw a 8.5 percent increase in its revenues to $66.9 crore for the quarter, while the cloud unit posted a 28 percent rise to $12.3 billion, led by growth in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) across core GCP products, AI Infrastructure, and Generative AI Solutions.

"We're pleased with our strong Q1 results, which reflect healthy growth and momentum across the business. Underpinning this growth is our unique full stack approach to AI...Search saw continued strong growth, boosted by the engagement we’re seeing with features like AI Overviews, which now has 1.5 billion users per month" Pichai said.

These results, however, come at a time when Google is facing the threat of a breakup by the U.S. government, following a U.S. federal judge's ruling in August 2024 that the company violated antitrust laws to maintain its online search monopoly.

The US department of justice (DoJ) is seeking to break up Google, potentially forcing the tech giant to divest its popular Chrome web browser, syndicate its search and advertising data to help rivals improve their quality and end exclusive distribution agreements with companies like Apple. The US district court is currently hearing arguments to determine remedies for this case.

Earlier this month, a US federal judge also ruled that Google illegally monopolised some online advertising technology markets, dealing yet another setback for the company.

Google said it would appeal the part of the case that it lost "We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective" Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said at the time.