In a surprising move last week, Youtube CEO Susan Wojicki announced that she would be stepping down from Youtube, a position she had held for nine years. Her tenure as CEO of Youtube has been marked with controversy over monetization, misinformation, and child safety issues on the platform. In her place as CEO of the famous video division of Youtube would be the youtube board member Neal Mohan. A look into Neal Mohan’s past at Google and Youtube may be informative on what the new CEO is expected to bring to Youtube.
Neal Mohan was born to a Hindu family in Lucknow India. He would go on to get his Bachelor’s degree at Stanford University in Electrical Engineering. Neal Mohan has an extensive resume, having previously worked for Microsoft and later Double Click, an advertising company that would go on to be bought by Google in 2007. Neal Mohan would also follow his company to continue working for Google, where he would continue to work on Double Click and other Google advertising products like AdSense AdWords. He was apparently so good at his job that when Twitter board member and former CEO of Double Click David Rosenblatt offered him a position as Twitter’s chief Product Officer, Google kept him by paying him $100 million in stock, as reported by TechCrunch. In 2015, Neal Mohan would join Youtube as the chief product officer, and would play an instrumental role in bringing the division of google into a radical new direction with the creation of Youtube TV, Youtube Music, and Youtube Shorts. Susan Wojicki credits Neal Mohan with running Youtube’s “Trust and Safety Team,” which means Mohan was heavily involved with decisions such as removing the dislike button and combating misinformation.
Neal Mohan’s arrival to the position of Youtube CEO comes at a critical time for the company. In January of this year, Google had to cut 12000 jobs. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Google is expected to make major investments in it. More importantly, the upcoming Gonzalez Vs Google LLC case which could potentially hold recommender systems and hold Google accountable to Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act, which could redefine the company and the internet in its entirety forever. All eyes now turn to Neal Mohan to see if he will be able to help boost Google’s revenue in relation to Youtube as CEO. All eyes turn to the new man behind the video, Neal Mohan.
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