YouTube Onboards Web3-Friendly Exec as New CEO

Following Susan Wojcicki’s departure from YouTube last week on February 16, Neal Mohan, a business executive who supports Web3, has been appointed as its next CEO. 

Wojcicki left YouTube after spending nine years in power expressing plans to begin a “new chapter” centered on family, health, and independent work. She presided over the crucial introduction of the revenue-sharing model during her terms in authority. Notably, she would still serve as an advisor to Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Before taking over as CEO, Mohan was YouTube’s chief product officer, where he supervised the contentious elimination of the video dislike button as well as the launch of YouTube Music and YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok. 

Stress on Web3

There was some FUD on Twitter from the tenacious NFT critics as soon as it was announced that Mohan would be the new CEO of YouTube. To the disappointment of the anti-NFT community, Mohan revealed his preliminary plans for integrating a variety of new features into Web3 in February 2022. These features include content tokenization using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and metaverse-based content experiences.

NFTs, in particular, might offer new opportunities for creators to interact with their fans and create new sources of income, Mohan stressed. He gave the possibility for producers to tokenize their experiences, artwork, images, and films as examples. He stated in a blog post dated February 10, 2022: 

“Web3 also opens up new opportunities for creators. We believe new technologies like blockchain and NFTs can allow creators to build deeper relationships with their fans. Together, they’ll be able to collaborate on new projects and make money in ways not previously possible.”

It would be interesting to see how he aims to tackle the platform’s ongoing crimes, since a Canadian man claimed at the end of January to have lost all of his life savings by falling for a crypto scam on YouTube. The malware “PennyWise,” which was said to have caused loss, was also reported to be growing through YouTube in the summer of last year.