YouTube raked in more than $7 billion in advertising revenue during the second quarter of this year, parent company Alphabet reported in its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
The Q2 revenue, which exceeds Wall Street expectations, bests the video platform’s Q1 ad revenue performance by $1 billion and represents a nearly 84 percent year-over-year increase.
During an earnings call with investors, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said YouTube Shorts, the video platform’s short-form video offering, has surpassed 15 billion daily views, an increase from the 6.5 billion daily views that the company reported in March. Pichai also highlighted YouTube’s payments to creators — over $30 billion has been paid out to creators, artists and media organizations over the past three years — and said the video platform paid more to YouTube partners and creators than in any other quarter in the company’s history.
Alphabet reported $61.88 billion in revenue for Q2, a 62 percent increase from the previous year, and a net income of $18.52 billion.
“In Q2, there was a rising tide of online activity in many parts of the world, and we’re proud that our services helped so many consumers and businesses,” Pichai said. “Our long-term investments in AI and Google Cloud are helping us drive significant improvements in everyone’s digital experience.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.