YouTube’s New CEO Explores Web3 Potential for Creators

Last week, Neal Mohan was appointed as the new leader of YouTube after seven years of serving as the company’s Chief Product Officer. This came after the previous CEO Susan Wojcicki announced her departure from the Google-owned video streaming service.

This appointment appears to be good news for Web3 enthusiasts and advocates.

Wojcicki penned a blog post to share her resignation, emphasizing Youtube’s impressive leadership team and commending Mohan for his accomplishments in launching YouTube TV and YouTube Music. She concluded that he would be a “terrific leader” who is ready to take over as CEO.

Wojcicki complimented Mohan on his comprehensive knowledge of YouTube as a company and as an online venue that serves as the hub of many communities. Wojcicki also commended him for his “wonderful sense” of the product, company dynamics, and creator-user networks.

YouTube is one of the most influential and visited websites in existence, with an average of 74.8 billion visits per month from September through November last year, according to Statista, – ranking second only to Google in terms of traffic.

Mohan has been open-minded about how the internet grows and its many platforms during his extended employment creating YouTube’s services. Last year, he revealed in a blog post that YouTube was exploring ways to incorporate Web3 technology, whether by “making YouTube more immersive” by taking advantage of the metaverse or by utilizing technology such as NFTs, which are a type of specific digital token commonly used to register online content.

Mohan wrote that blockchain and NFTs hold massive potential for creators to form more meaningful relationships with their fans. However, he cautioned it is important to implement these new technologies in a responsible manner. “But we think there’s incredible potential as well,” he added.

For instance, Mohan mentioned that NFTs can be a “verifiable way for fans to own unique videos, photos, art, and even experiences from their favorite creators.” According to him, NFT will enable creators and viewers alike the means to team up in new ways.

Commenting on the rapidly evolving metaverse, Mohan stated that technological use is still emerging but added that YouTube will strive to incorporate more dynamic interactions for games and make them feel “more alive.”

The word “metaverse” itself was created in 1992 by author Neal Stephenson in his science fiction novel “Snow Crash” and had nothing to do with blockchain; however, today, prominent projects like The Sandbox and Decentraland use the term to refer to virtual worlds with digital land and other assets that are governed by blockchain technology.

Google has also invested more substantially in Web3 services in the last year. The Blockchain Node Engine, a cloud-based tool for Ethereum applications and developers, was introduced by the corporation in October.

The service hosts and maintains individual nodes that participate in the blockchain network, delivering the “reliability, performance, and security [users] expect from Google Cloud computing” to the digital assets market.

A month later, the technology giant announced that it would bring its Blockchain Node Engine to Solana Blockchain, scheduled for the beginning of 2023.

Last September, Google offered Ethereum a nod when the network migrated to a less energy-intensive method of verifying transitions, a long-awaited procedure known as the merge. A “doodle” feature in Google’s search engine tracked how long the procedure would take and other statistics relating to Ethereum’s transition.

A number of prominent YouTube employees have embraced Web3, including its former Global Head of Gaming, Ryan Wyatt, who joined Polygon Studios as CEO in February 2022 before becoming President of Polygon Labs.

According to Watt’s recent statements, YouTube and Polygon share similar traits.

He remarked that both platforms serve to onboard users onto it and feature creators from all backgrounds, “uploading gaming videos, all the way to now, [where it’s] games and projects being built.”