Following Susan Wojcicki’s departure this week, YouTube has appointed Web3-friendly executive Neal Mohan as its new CEO.
Wojcicki stepped down from YouTube on Feb. 16 after nine years at the helm, stating plans to focus on family, health, and personal projects. She introduced YouTube’s revenue-sharing model during her tenure.
She will continue to serve as an advisor to Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Previously, Mohan served as YouTube’s chief product officer and oversaw the controversial removal of the dislike button, the introduction of YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok, and YouTube Music.
The NFT-hating community was greatly dismayed when Mohan outlined tentative plans in February 2022 to integrate etaverse-based content experiences and content tokenization via nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Mohan emphasized that NFTs can provide a new way for creators to engage with their audiences and make additional revenue. He cited the possibility of tokenizing videos, photos, art, and experiences.
Web3 also opens up new opportunities for creators. As a result of blockchain and NFTs, creators can build deeper relationships with their fans. He wrote in a blog post on Feb. 10, 2022, “They’ll be able to collaborate on new projects and earn money in ways they hadn’t been able to previously.”
While Web 3-related plans were intended to roll out last year, they have yet to materialize, but could see another push under Mohan’s leadership.
YouTube CEO Mohan’s appointment has drawn surprisingly little attention from Twitter’s feisty NFT skeptics, who are usually quick to flame anything related to mainstream tech connections.
