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YouTube's top business executive is leaving his job as TikTok becomes a bigger threat to Google's streaming giant.
Robert Kyncl, a senior executive who has worked for the company for more than 12 years, said late Monday that he was leaving.
Kyncl wrote on Twitter, "After 12 amazing years, I've decided to move on to the next challenge soon." "It's been a pleasure to work with creators, artists, media, and music companies to change media."
In October, Mary Ellen Coe, who is in charge of Google's advertising deals with small and medium-sized businesses, will take his place.
Kyncl's departure comes as YouTube's growth slows and TikTok's popularity grows among Gen Z, a group that YouTube wants to attract.
This month, a Pew Research poll showed that 95% of US teens use YouTube, making it the most popular app or website in the survey. But TikTok, which was used by 67% of teens, came after YouTube. This Chinese-owned app is taking up more and more of young people's time online, which puts YouTube and Meta's Instagram at risk.
In order to keep young users, both YouTube and Instagram have copied TikTok's short-video scrolling interface with features called "Shorts" and "Reels," respectively.
Kyncl worked at Netflix before joining YouTube in 2010. He didn't say right away what he plans to do when he leaves the company.
Google told The Post that Kyncl was leaving, but they didn't say anything else.
Variety was the first to report Kyncl's departure. They did this by publishing a memo from YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
“Under his leadership, YouTube forged new relationships and partnerships in music, traditional media and tech, and our creator ecosystem — without him, the term ‘YouTuber’ wouldn’t be a mainstream term,” Wojcicki wrote. “Thanks to Robert and his leadership team, we are meaningfully contributing to the media industry, having paid more than $30B to creators, artists and media companies in the last 3 years.”
Wojcicki added that Kyncl will stay with the company through early 2023 in order to help “ensure a smooth transition of leadership.”
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