YouTube this week used its Brandcast presentation at NewFronts to boast huge logged-in user numbers and brand-safe content to appease marketers weary of their ads running alongside inappropriate content.
According to The Verge, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Thursday that 1.8 billion registered YouTube users are watching content on the platform each month, which is up from the 1.5 billion registered user stat YouTube threw out in the middle of 2017. Wojcicki noted that the number doesn’t account for all the nonregistered users on the platform.
After the viewership numbers came the less-fun conversation about brand safety on YouTube. Wojcicki said YouTube is using artificial intelligence and 10,000 staffers to identify offensive content, according to Deadline.
“There is no playbook for how open platforms operate at our scale,” she said, according to the publication. “But it’s critical that we’re on the right side of history.”
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YouTube also announced a number of new shows that will be offered as part of its Google Preferred product for advertisers. New shows include a special in which Will Smith will bungee jump out of a helicopter, a travel show with Priyanka Chopra, a series sponsored by Wendy’s featuring comedian and actor Jack Whitehall training with professional soccer players and a high school basketball documentary series co-produced by LeBron James.
YouTube is also bringing back Demi Lovato’s show, the Super Slow Show and Kevin Hart’s “What the Fit.”
YouTube said that Google Preferred Lineups and Breakout Videos will include its complete music universe, including eligible VEVO channels and videos, and that this year advertisers will have more opportunities to sponsor livestreamed events on YouTube.