Citi Reveals Strong YouTube Growth Numbers

• Citi’s YouTube Tracker indicates October was a strong month for the video service.
• Citi believes that YouTube will continue to grow revenue via several different avenues.
• The firm maintains its Buy rating on Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG.

In a new report, Citi Research analyst Mark May discussed the firm’s YouTube Tracker numbers for the month of October. May broke down the good and the bad for the month and gave his take on the growth prospects for YouTube looking forward.

The Tracker

Citi Research tracks monthly third-party data on YouTube’s top 1000 video producers, including viewing, subscription and content production statistics. Alphabet does not disclose YouTube-specific metrics, but Citi’s numbers provide some intra-quarter updates on YouTube’s performance.

Related Link: YouTube Could Roll Out Paid Subscription Service Soon

The Numbers

As of the end of October, YouTube has registered 1.15 trillion total cumulative worldwide views, up 66 percent in the past year. The site logged 45 billion total views in October, up 117 percent year-over-year (Y/Y). Total views in August through October were up 85 percent over the same period in 2014.

The total number of subscriptions to the top 1000 publishers now stands at 2.67 billion, up 42 percent Y/Y. These top publishers added another 66 million subscribers in October alone.

As of the end of October, the total number of videos on YouTube stood at 4.31 million, up 9.0 percent Y/Y. Views per video nearly doubled Y/Y to around 10,400 in October.

Impact

According to May, October’s YouTube numbers were particularly strong and should put Alphabet shareholders’ minds at ease. “These strong results portend continued strength in Google’s Sites’ paid clicks,” he explained.

Although certain data points may indicate YouTube is approaching maximum ad load, May believes that YouTube will be able to continue to grow revenue via viewing trends, user engagement and pricing.

Citi maintains its Buy rating on Alphabet and its $820 target for the stock.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.

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