The removal of the native YouTube app from iOS seems to be the best thing that could have happened for Google, as the ad-enabled replacement now available in the App Store has had a big hand in tripling the video-sharing site’s mobile ad revenue in the last six months.
YouTube owner Google reports (via Bloomberg) that more than half of all U.S. smartphone owners have used the YouTube app, and that a quarter of traffic comes from phones and tablets. Figures released earlier this year by Ooyala showed that iOS users account for two-thirds of mobile video viewing, and Google previously revealed that the same proportion of its mobile searches came from Apple’s iPhone and iPad users. iOS users are more engaged than Android users and Google clearly knows this …
Bloomberg reports that YouTube has tripled advertising sales on mobile devices over the past six months, bringing in an estimated $350 million in revenue at the video-sharing website.
“The commercial business has exploded,” Lucas Watson, vice president of sales at YouTube said. “It’s a huge part of our business, and we know that’s where it’s headed.”
