YouTube takes a podcast victory lap

Donald Trump’s embrace of podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Von during the 2024 election meant that Donald Trump was also embracing YouTube, which has become a huge podcasting platform.

AP and Getty Images

Some of you still think of podcasts as something you listen to — not things you watch.Google would like to disabuse you of that notion: It wants you — and investors — to know that podcasts are increasingly popular on YouTube.That’s why Google chose to highlight the rise of podcasts during its fourth-quarter earnings call.

YouTube is the biggest video platform in the world. It’s central to popular culture. It’s a $50 billion business for Google, its parent company.

But Google would like you to know that YouTube is also a place where lots of people listen to — and watch — podcasts.

“YouTube continues to be the leader in streaming watchtime and podcasts,” the company noted in its fourth-quarter earnings release on Tuesday. That’s a glancing, anodyne statement. But it’s also meaningful: I’ve never seen Google mention podcasting in its messages to Wall Street before.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also mentioned YouTube’s embrace of podcasting in his scripted comments at the beginning of the earnings call. So did Philipp Schindler, the company’s chief business officer.

To underline this: Companies like Google spend a lot of time figuring out what they do and don’t want to highlight during earnings. So, dropping “podcasts” into the messaging isn’t a random choice.

It also makes lots of sense. As we noted last fall, Donald Trump leaned heavily into podcasts in the 2024 election — which meant Donald Trump also leaned heavily into YouTube.

That’s because increasing numbers of people are using YouTube to consume podcasts — either to actually watch them, like a low-budget TV chat show, or to simply ignore the video and listen to them in the background. Edison Research says YouTube has now become the most popular way for people to consume podcasts, period.

You could see YouTube CEO Neal Mohan leaning into YouTube’s new prominence in the political landscape last month when he posted photos of himself at a pre-inauguration party alongside a slew of Trump-friendly podcasters, including Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck, and Lex Fridman. (Fridman also got a shout-out during the earnings call.)

But YouTube won’t have podcasting and video to itself. Spotify, which has long had video as an option for its podcasters, is trying hard to get some of its highest-profile podcasters to become video stars as well.