SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 — While YouTube remains largely associated with its video content, the platform is also making a name for itself in the world of podcasts. With more than one billion active monthly listeners in January, the American giant is increasingly positioning itself as a leader in this domain.

In recent years, podcasts have become essential entertainment and informational content, and media, brands and content creators alike have beenn jumping onn the bandwagon. Social networks, like platforms, have been boosting various features and functionalities to attract content creators and listeners to their site. And it seems that YouTube has beaten its competition in this high stakes battlefield. Its victory can be see in an impressive audience of more than one billion active monthly podcast listeners reached last month, the company revealed on its official blog.

For the American giant, this success is due in particular to the power of video: “Podcasts with video are more than just a trend, they meet audiences where they are: on YouTube. We’ve specifically developed our podcast product experience to make it easier for fans to find podcasts they love, discover new ones and watch (or listen!) wherever they want,” says the post by the company’s Tim Katz, vice president partnerships, podcasts. Whether video or audio, the diversity offered by YouTube seems to be one of the reasons for its dominance. Several studies have also demonstrated the interest of video podcasts among listeners, even motivating them to listen to these programmes for longer.

In addition to smartphones and laptops, YouTube has also found its audience tuning in on television sets: “Podcasts on YouTube and YouTube Music are also everywhere our users are, even TVs. Last year, viewers watched over 400M hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices,” the blog entry pointed out.

It is therefore not surprising that the video streaming platform has become the favourite of listeners in the United States, as indicated in the Triton Digital report. — ETX Studio

Recommended reading: