How would you measure the success of YouTube?

Question

How would you measure the success of YouTube?

Asked at Google over a year ago

102k views

& 2 other companies

Asked at

& 2 other companies

102k views

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LIJules · Answer 1 · 2022-10-25T06:50:41+0000

First I'd like to think about Youtube's mission, then disucss what success would mean and why.

Mission: Youtube's goal is to educate and entertain it's users with video content

Youtube's business model is two sided (creators & consumers). We have video creators and content consumers. Success could mean several things. I know that advertisements are a main source of revenue for Youtube. In order to have advertisements, we need videos. To aquire advertisements, we need users on the platform. To ensure users on the platform we need people creating content. To ensure people are creating content, we need to have a product strategy that ensure's easy consuption and video creation.

I would measure success from multiple angles:

These metrics are related to engagement

North Star metrics

Time On Site *
Monthly Active Users

Content Consumers

# of videos watched

Creators

# of videos uploaded
# of videos shared
#of likes

The more site usage I have the more advertisement revenue I can generate

WhoAreU · Answer 2 · 2021-02-02T12:07:35+0000

Youtube is the content sharing platform where users create content in the form of videos , upload videos , share videos with other users . Users also search on youtube for relevant content like - Technical discussions, interview information, exercise videos etc. Users can also conduct Youtube Live sessions and interact with audience real time in the form of live likes, comments .

Clarifying Questions:

Do you want me to focus on Youtube Live or any specific feature of Youtube or Youtube as an overall product? - Overall Product
Do you want me to consider any specific platform - mobile (andrioid , ios) or desktop? - No specific platform
Do you want me to focus on any specific user segment - content creators, Advertisers, normal youtube users who search and view content on youtube, small scale businesses/brands?
Is there any specific goal in our mind which we want to measure ? You can define the Goal

Setting Goal:

As Youtube is in the market for more than a decade now , users and industry both are aware of the product. In this modern age era we have strong competitors like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok which also allow users to create videos and upload them online and have some catchy features like Instagram TV, Reels , live etc.it is very important for Youtube to make sure that we are able to acquire maximum market share , we are able to engage users on our platform and retain those users . Hence I would like to focus on metrics under Acquisition , Engagement and Retention area . Followed by Monetization metrics .

User Journey:

Now we can focus on how the overall user journey looks like:

1. Content creator creates an account on Youtube uploads a video

2. User downloads the youtube app / or types youtube url in the chrome / or clicks on youtube url via one of the search results

3. User views the video

4. User shares the video

5. User likes/dislikes/comments on the video

6. User views the ads shown in between the videos

7. User skips the irrelevant adds

8. User clicks on the add

9. User actually goes to the website shown in the ad and makes the purchase

10. User informs that the add was not relevant

11. User views the recommended videos

12. User seraches for more content using the search bar provided in the youtube app

Based on the above user journey and user actions now we can come up with a list of metrics which will help us track the success in each of the buckets - Acquisition, Engagement, Conversion, Retention and Monetization. We can also use some metrics to track youtube system health.

Acquisition

# Number of new sign ups

#%Growth in the number new sign ups ( weekly/monthly/ quarterly )

Engagement:

#Avg time spent by user per session - Growth in this will indicate that the video suggestions are relevant to user)

#Likes/dislikes/comments per user / #likes/comments/dislikes per video

#views per video

#%increase in the views

#%increase in the shares

#%of times user watched the entire video

#%of times user skipped the video half way through and jumped to another video ( check if there is any pattern here - for eg : if the % high on any platform - mobile vs web , any specific region , for any specific content creator etc)

#%of video content reported as inappropriate

Interaction with ads:

#%of users who viewed full ads

#%of users who interacted with the ads - clicked on the ad / made the actual purchase

#%of users who skipped the adds midway

Conversion:

#% of users who converted from free to paid membership

#%increase in revenue due to paid membership

Retention:

#% of users who stopped using Youtube (churn rate)

#% of repeat users ( daily/weekly/monthly)

#% of increase in repeat users

Monetization:

#%increase in revenue from ads

#%increase in CTR

System Health Check

#% of time Youtube crashed

#% of time users reported app related issues/ technical glitches which resulted in functional issues for users.

Hung Nguyen · Answer 3 · 2020-04-10T00:37:16+0000

Question: How would you measure the success of YouTube?

Answer:

USER SEGMENTS YouTube has different kinds of users, but I think I will categorize them into 3 main groups:

Non-premium users:

It is the group having the largest number of users. Users in this group view videos on YouTube without paying any money. However, they have to see the advertisement, which means they can help YouTube make money by viewing ads paid by YouTube’s customers.

Premium users:

Premium users also view videos on YouTube but they don’t have to see advertisements because they pay $12/month.

Upload users (YouTuber)

Instead of only viewing like 2 above groups, users in this group also create and upload their videos on YouTube. They are often known as YouTuber or YouTube Creator. The profit YouTube's earned from them is their content.

METRICS

Non-premium viewers
Acquisition	# of users visiting YouTube landing page
	# of users finishing the first video
Activation	# of users finishing the second video
	# of users logging into their account
Retention	# of users subscribing one channel
	# of users coming the second time
	# of videos user watching per day, week, month, quarter and year
	The amount of time user watching per day, week, month, quarter and year
Reference	# of users referring YouTube successfully to +1 acquisitied user
	# of users referring YouTube successfully to +1 activated user (view more than 3 videos)
Revenue	Ads revenue per customer
	Click through rate
	Lifetime value
	Eyeballs per advertisement

Premium viewers
Acquisition	# of users visiting YouTube Premium landing page
Activation	# of users trying 1-month free trial
Revenue	# of users paying for the next month
Retention	# of users paying for the third month
	# of users paying for one year
Reference	# of users referring YouTube Premium to +1 free trial user
	# of users referring YouTube Premium to +1 paid user

YouTuber/ YouTube creator
Acquisition	# of users visiting YouTube channel landing page
Activation	# of users creating their channel
	# of users saving their 1st draft
	# of users uploading their 1st video
Retention	# of users uploading their 2nd video
	# of videos 1 user upload per week, month, quarter and year.
	# of views per video.
	# of subscribers per channel
Reference	# of users referring to their friends creating 1st channel
	# of users referring to their friends uploading 1st video
Revenue	Ads revenue per video

Thank you and let me know if you have any feedback <3

Roys · Answer 4 · 2019-06-10T04:56:58+0000

YouTube is the defacto destination for people to find and watch videos of different kinds, mostly user generated content as well as paid content. Lately, YouTube has added the ability to watch cable and broadcast tv as a premium member. The primary way YouTube makes money is through video ads and iirc users make a cut of the video ads money for their video uploads.

YouTube was intended to be the one stop shop for all kinds of video for all kinds of content for all types of people world. From that perspective, we need to see how widely is YouTube available, how the audience values YouTube and whether YouTube as a business is successful or not. Given the above, we should look at reach across the world, we should look at user engagement and finally we should look at earnings.

1. Reach - most widely used video service in the world, as measured by the number of users on the service every month, by the number of users uploading content monthly.

2. Engagement - YouTube users use YouTube for a variety of reasons mostly for entertainment and also for education. Entertainment is a daily need of human beings thus, daily usage is a valid measure of engaged users - DAU, we can also see whether YouTube has depth engagement so we only count users with more that 1 video watched or minutes of video watched. People also use YouTube for education so a daily habit is a valid metric.

3. Revenue - YouTube is costly from an operational cost perspective. Therefore, at its current state of the business, it is expected to earn enough to drive net positive contribution to google overall business. As costs are tight ly related to video being watched, revenue per hour of video streamed may be an interesting metric.

4. Brand impact - YouTube carries risk of legal and brand damage due to pirated and offensive content. Net positive contribution to Google brand needs to be measured. One way to measure brand impact would be monitor piracy takedowns per thousand videos for e g

5. Further, YouTube has impact on society in different countries in different ways with access to free lectures from the best teachers and authors. YouTube has also allows for harmful content. It would also be important to measure offensive content notifications per 1000 videos

PM Team · Answer 5 · 2019-05-12T21:10:30+0000

Attach this Google metrics interview question with this framework:

Youtube comes in two flavors, the ad-supported version and the premium version at ~$12/month subscription cost. It is also a 2 sided marketplace. Hence it's success not only depends on the number of people watching the content, but also on those uploading content. I will try to breakdown the metrics for success into the Activation, Acquisition, Retention, and Monetization for both viewers and uploaders, as well as for the ad-supported and premium versions.

Uploaders

Acquisition	# of new customers uploading content
Retention	# of Videos uploaded per consumer. Daily, Weekly, and Monthly active usage numbers for content uploads. Views per video. Channels created per uploader. Subscribers per channel
Monetization	Advertisement revenue per video

Viewers - Ad supported

Acquisition	# of new customers logging in; Daily Traffic
Activation	# of logged in users accessing service;
Retention	Average time spent on site; Daily, Weekly, Monthly # of Videos watched; Time spent on site
Monetization	Advertisement revenue per customer; Eyeballs per advertisement; Click through rate; LTV

Viewers - Premium

Acquisiton	# of customers signing up for trial
Activation	# of customers renewing subscription
Retention	DAU, WAU, and MAU; Subscription renewal after 2nd month of service; Churn rate
Monetization	Monthly revenue generated from subscribers

Feedback is highly appreciated.

sanketdalal10 · Answer 6 · 2023-12-29T22:27:15+0000

Clarifying Questions —
1. 1.1. Well, YouTube is a very big product with tons of features, like YouTube TV, YouTube stories, YouTube shorts, YouTube videos, YouTube Music etc. Any specific product are we targeting ? >>>> I would like to focus on YouTube videos are thats the major product of the YouTube. Unless you want me to pickup any other sub-products within YouTube.
2. 1.2. Any specific metric, are we trying to measure? Like user acquisition, engagement, revenue etc. >> no, we are looking for YouTube in general.
3. 1.3. Also, are we focusing on YouTube app or web or both ? >> everything (iOS app, android app, web etc)
4. 1.4. Ok, as we finalized the YouTube, I would describe YouTube as a product. So YouTube is a video streaming platform where users can search and watch videos, short videos, watch YouTube TV or music etc. users can also like the videos or post comments on the video. Even, users can create their own YouTube channel where they would be posting the videos they created. And YouTube mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world.
  We also have a paid version of YouTube which costs around 12 cad or usd … not sure about the exact cost. And the advantage of the paid version is users can enjoy ads free videos.
Users of YouTube —
1. 2.1. Normal users who would use YouTube to watch the videos
2. 2.2. Users posting comments on the YouTube
3. 2.3. Casual users who would be uploading videos on YouTube
4. 2.4. YouTubers who would be uploading the videos on YouTube for their subscribers
User Journey —
1. 3.1. YouTube video watcher —
  1. 3.1.1. User login to the YouTube using the google account (sign-in is optional, users can still watch the videos without signing in)
  2. 3.1.2. On the user’s home, he would be provided with a bunch of recommendations based on the channel he is subscribing or based on his history.
  3. 3.1.3. Users can also search for the videos by typing in the search bar. And he would be presented with the result
  4. 3.1.4.One user starts watching the video and he is using a free version of YouTube, he will be presented with the ads, and for some ads after 5 seconds, those ads can be skipped.
  5. 3.1.5. Users can also post a comment on the YouTube videos if he is interested in that or reply to someone’s else comment.
  6. 3.1.6. Users can like the videos as well.
2. 3.2. YouTube video poster —
  1. 3.2.1. Once the video is ready, YouTubers will post the video on the YouTube on their channel.
  2. 3.2.2. They can look for the no. of views on channel, no. of views / video and some other statistics on their channel.
Metrics —
1. 4.1. Acquisition —
  1. 4.1.1. # of app downloads
  2. 4.1.2. # of users landed on the YouTube home page for the very first time (however this would be very difficult to track)

1. 4.2. Activation —
  1. 4.2.1. # of user signups
  2. 4.2.2. # of users search the video / watched the video for the very first time
  3. 4.2.3. # of users uploaded for the video on their channel for the first time
  4. 4.2.4. # of users posted the comment / liked the video for the very first time
2. 4.3. Engagement —
  1. 4.3.1. Engagement for the video watcher perspective —
    1. Avg. time spent / user / day (track the growth wow / mom / yoy)
    2. Avg. time spent / user / session
    3. Avg. # of videos watched / user / day (track the growth wow / mom / yoy)
    4. Avg. # of videos watched / day on the platform (track the growth wow / mom / yoy)
    5. # of CTR for ads displayed
    6. # of ads skipped / user after 5 sec ads video (this is an imp metric to track if we are showing the right ads to the users) coz if we are showing wrong ads to the users then he might get frustrated and might leave the platform which would affect our engagement matrix.
    7. Ratio # of comments or likes / user to the # of videos watched / user (track this growth wow / mom / yoy)
  2. 4.3.2. Engagement from the video uploader perspective —
    1. Avg. # of videos uploaded / user / week (track the growth wow / mom / yoy)
    2. Avg. # of comments / video posted by the video uploader (this will show the engagement that video uploader is actively engaging with this audience)
    3. # of videos uploaded on the platform / week (track growth wow / mom / yoy)
    4. # of videos uploaded / category / month (this would help us to track that video uploaders on the platform are not only uploading videos related to one category however diversified videos are being uploaded on the platform)

Retention —
1. # of users uploading videos repeatedly on their channel
2. # of DAU, WAU and MAU (track this growth wow / mom / yoy)

1. Monetization / Revenue —
  1. # of users continuing the premium subscription
  2. Revenue generated / video (CTR * CPC)

Abhinav Chitre · Answer 7 · 2020-08-07T08:47:21+0000

WHAT IS YOUTUBE

Youtube is an online video sharing platform where users can share and watch videos. The users can create content as well as consume content available on the platform. These content creators have their own channels on YouTube on which they release videos and other users can consume that content.

USERS

There are mainly two types of users

Content Creators

-Users

-Influencers

-Brands/Businesses

-Artists/Celebrities

Content Consumers

-General Audience

For the sake of time, I will focus only on one of the two types of users - Content Consumers

Lets look at the user journeys for Content consumers

Users comes on YouTube directly-> searches for a video using keywords or chooses video from the videos on the homepage (recommendations) -> watches the video -> likes the video —> shares the video —> subscribes to the channel —> watches another video

User may come to YouTube from a video link on WhatsApp or video post on Facebook or any other social networks —> watch the video —> may like the video —> may subscribe the channel —> shares the video —> watches another video

Metrics

Lets look at the social aspect and usage metrics of Youtube.

Number of videos watched per user per day

Number of videos watched per user per session

Average session time per user

Number of sessions of YouTube in a day

Time spent on YouTube per user per day

Number of videos added to watch later per day

Average Time spent on watching videos from watch later per day

Number of videos liked/disliked or shared per day

Number of videos commented on per day

Number of videos shared per day via various channels

Number of videos watched per day shared via social channels - breakup of the source

Average Number of channels subscribed per user

Time spent per user watching new content released by these channels per day

Lets look at some of the metrics which track Retention

DAU,MAU,WAU

Number of sessions on YouTube per user per day (A session would time spent on YouTube actively)

Lets also look at how we can measure the success of the recommendation engine

CTR of home page - videos watched from the options on the home page

% of videos watched and liked from the home page recommendations.

Lets look at metrics for premium users also

Number of new paid memberships per month

Active paid memberships at any point of time

Revenue per month from paid memberships

Lets look at overall revenue metrics

Revenue per month from ads

Revenue per ad

Prioritisation

Out of these some of the important metrics would be :

Number of Youtube videos watched per day and per session

Time spent on YouTube per user per day

Number of YouTube sessions per day

DAU, WAU

Number of new paid memberships per month

Active paid memberships at any point of time

Revenue per month from ads

Rogue · Answer 8 · 2020-01-09T15:33:11+0000

Persona

Creator
Consumer
Business

Goals

Creator
- To easily upload content
- To reach to maximum number of people for each content
- To improve content by interacting with people who see content
- To get more views of content
- To get more whole video views on content
Consumer
- To watch relevant and popular videos
- To easily search videos
- To see more similar videos
Business
- Show more ads
  - Add new people
  - Get People spending more time on youtube per day
  - Keep people coming back to youtube

Success metrics

Creator
- Videos created more than x mins/active creator/week(x can be median length of videos before users exit or videos end)
- Active creators per week.
- Retention on active creators per week
- views/content/user/week
- messages/video
Consumer
- New users joined/week
- Video views/day
- Time spent/day
- devices/user/week
- subscribes/user/week
- Videos watched per session
- % Videos starting from recommendation
- likes/video/user
- subscribe/video/user
- Videos watched in the first week of joining
Business
- Ads seen per user/week
- Ad views/Ad
Negative metrics
- Churned users/week
- Exits from middle of video/user/week
- Unsubscribes from channels/user/week
Premium members
- % of Premium members
- # of premium members
- wow/mom activation of service
- Daily time spent for premium members
- % Renewal of premium service
- Avg Revenue generated per premium member

anac · Answer 9 · 2019-09-16T14:17:49+0000

Product description

A platform for users to consume and share video content - mainly entertainment & educational content

User types

Video content consumers
Uploader users - users/brands/singers/schools/teachers who upload their video content

Goals

Increase the adoption of the product, create large base of relevant video content by publishers which being consumed by individuals.
High retention - make sure users & publishers return to consume and update video content

If the product will have large user base of publishers who share content on the one hand and high user base who consume the content, the advertisers would like to come and monetize their ads in this platform and the platform can charge for premium membership in case user wouldn’t want to see ads

KPI

Publisher adoption = # of daily video content being uploaded with more then 100 views in the first week.
User adoption = # of daily new users who consume at least 1 video content
User retention 1 = average # of video content being viewed (full view) / total users base for a given week
User retention 2 - relevancy = # click & full view content / # of queries per day. (*Note that here the entity is not a user rather then a query phrase)
User retention 3 - popularity= % of video content being consumed out of the total searches through google search engine
CTR of ads = # of click on ads / total number of video views (impressions)