YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down after running the company for nine years.
She was instrumental in building YouTube into a platform that reshaped entertainment, culture, and politics, the AP said.
Wojcicki told employees in an email that she is stepping down to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, has been named the company’s new CEO.
Wojcicki’s history with Google goes back to the beginning when she was the company’s landlord when it first operated out of a garage in Menlo Park, California, according to Fortune.
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page worked in her garage for five months, renting it for $1,700 per month from Wojcicki before moving into a real office, AP said. They later asked Wojcicki to join the company.
“It would be one of the best decisions of my life,” Wojcicki said in her resignation announcement.
Google eventually purchased the 1,900-square-foot Menlo Park home in 2006, according to SF Gate.
Founder Sergey Brin later married Susan Wojcicki’s sister Anne in 2007, but divorced in 2015, according to AP.
Google purchased YouTube, at a time when it was facing complaints about copyright infringement, for $1.65 billion, AP said.
Wojcicki became CEO in 2014 and oversaw massive growth. In 2019, Needham & Company analyst Laura Martin valued the company at $300 billion, according to Business Insider.
YouTube had ad revenue of $29 billion in 2022 but saw its revenues decline 5% year-over-year in the second half, the AP reported. In the fourth quarter, YouTube ad revenue was down 8%, according to Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat.
The timing of her resignation comes days before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for a lawsuit involving the company.
The family of an American woman killed in Paris during an attack by ISIS sued the company, alleging YouTube’s algorithms helped the terrorist groups’ recruitment, according to CNBC.
If the Supreme Court deems that tech companies can be liable for content posted on its sites, some experts say it could destroy YouTube and fundamentally change the entire internet, AP reported.
Google told the justices that a ruling against the company could create a ‘litigation minefield’ on the internet, according to Economic Times.
U.S. law states that internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the content users post on their networks under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which provides legal “safe harbor” for internet companies, the AP said.
This protection prompted YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen to launch a video site where users could broadcast themselves, the AP concluded.
“Section 230 is foundational to the internet. It protects free speech and helps platforms more effectively combat harmful content,” incoming YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said on LinkedIn.
“Next month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments seeking to undercut Section 230. The stakes could not be higher.”
