50% of YouTube’s traffic is now from mobile

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has revealed that 50% of views on YouTube now come from mobile phones and tablets. This is impressive growth considering that mobile accounted for 40% of YouTube videos last year and only comprised six percent of views on the video-sharing platform as of 2011.

“Mobile is super important. I think it’s important for every business right now,” Wojcicki said.

Wojcicki is correct, and one only has to look at other platforms to realise how big the number of people who access social and content platforms on mobile.

The 50% growth in mobile views is not a fluke for YouTube, as it has been investing in growing that mobile offering since 2007. In that year, the company transcoded all videos which allowed for a greater mobile format push.

Susan Wojcicki has also revealed that YouTube is exploring a new subscription service. She did not reveal any specifics but did say it will have an ad-free service option. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how many people actually take up the subscription, especially given how frequently we see complaints about YouTube ads on social media.

“YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads,” Wojcicki said.