(San Francisco) Susan Wojcicki, the boss of YouTube, announced Thursday that she is stepping down from her post after almost a decade at the head of the most popular online video platform in the world.
She will remain as an adviser at Google, the service’s parent company and technology giant, which she joined when it was still a young company out of its garage.
“After nearly 25 years, I’ve decided to step down from my role at the helm of YouTube and start a new chapter by focusing on my family, my health and the personal projects that I’m passionate about,” she said. in a note to employees of the California group.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, rented his garage in 1998, the company’s first headquarters after their dormitory at nearby Stanford University.
A year later, she became the young company’s first marketing director.
Iconic woman of Silicon Valley, she is ranked as the 16e employee of Google, which became Alphabet in 2015 to distinguish the group’s search engine and main services from its other lesser-known activities, its “bets”.
“I’ve worn many hats,” she recalls in her note published on the YouTube blog, from co-creating the image search engine on Google, to acquiring YouTube and DoubleClick and to her role as vice-president in charge of publicity.
Google largely dominates the global digital advertising market, but is currently going through a difficult patch, like many of its competitors, due to inflation which has led advertisers to cut spending.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the group disappointed with exceptionally low advertising revenues over one year: 59 billion dollars for Google (-3.6%) and less than 8 billion for YouTube (-7.8%).
After leading YouTube for nine years, another platform executive, Neal Mohan, will replace Susan Wojcicki later this year.
As the head of the service, she has faced many controversies, from the privacy risks for underage users of the site to the fight against misinformation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are in an incredibly important time for Google – it reminds me of the early days – with incredible products and innovations, immense opportunities and a healthy appetite for impossible things,” she said Thursday.
His sister had married Sergey Brin, but the couple later divorced.