After serving as YouTube’s Chief Product Officer for over seven years, Neal Mohan was appointed last week to lead the Google-owned streaming platform after former CEO Susan Wojcicki said she’d be stepping down.
His ascendance bodes well for fans and advocates of Web3 technologies.
Wojcicki announced her resignation in a blog post. In praising Youtube’s “incredible leadership team,” she commended Mohan for playing a pivotal role in the launch of products like YouTube TV and YouTube Music, stating he’ll be a “terrific leader.”
Wojcicki also praised Mohan for his robust understanding of YouTube as both a business and one of the most popular places for communities to congregate. “He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees,” Wojcicki wrote.
As one of the most popular websites in the world, the popularity and reach of YouTube cannot be understated. From September to November last year, the website ranked only behind Google in terms of use, with 74.8 billion visits on average per month, according to Statista.
During his long tenure shaping YouTube’s offerings, Mohan has kept an open mind about the evolution of the internet and its assorted platforms. Last year, he disclosed in a blog post that YouTube was looking at ways it could possibly integrate Web3 technology, whether by “making YouTube more immersive” by leveraging the metaverse or tapping technology like NFTs, unique digital tokens that are often used to assert ownership of online content.
“We believe new technologies like blockchain and NFTs can allow creators to build deeper relationships with their fans,” Mohan wrote. “There’s a lot to consider in making sure we approach these new technologies responsibly, but we think there’s incredible potential as
