YouTube launches dedicated podcast homepage for US users – TechCrunch

There were reports of this earlier this year YouTube will soon add a dedicated podcast homepage — a signal that the company is getting more serious about its investment in podcasts and the potential ad revenue they can bring. YouTube confirmed to TechCrunch today that the new podcast destination is now live for US users, after the URL was discovered to be live before the official announcement.

According to the report in 9to5Googlededicated podcast page YouTube.com/podcasts went live sometime last month, and now the link, at least for some users, is to YouTube existing overview page along with other major areas such as gaming, sports, learning, fashion and others. However, it did not appear on the side navigation bar of the site.

When reached for comment, YouTube told TechCrucnh that the URL is currently unavailable worldwide.

“YouTube’s podcast destination page helps users explore new and popular podcast episodes, shows and creators, as well as recommend podcast content,” said YouTube spokesperson Paul Penigton. “It is currently only available in the US.”

YouTube declined to answer further questions about the company’s plans for podcasts in general or the designation itself — hinting that a larger announcement is yet to come. (It’s entirely possible that this will be one of the announcements planned for next month’s YouTube Creators Event, if we had to guess.)

Up until today, there have already been many hints that YouTube is taking podcasts more seriously – especially after Spotify entered the space with his own support for video podcasts.

Last year, YouTube hired a head of podcastsKai Chak to lead his efforts in space and was offering cash popular podcasters to film their shows, according to reports. This year in March a site called Podnews leaked an 84-page presentation detailing YouTube’s podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed that it plans to pilot the feature by accepting RSS feeds. It also mentioned a new URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, but the link didn’t work at the time.

The document also helped clarify some of YouTube’s views on podcasts, as it suggested YouTube plans to show audio ads sold by Google and other partners. This could be a potential new source of revenue for the tech giant at a time when younger generations have changed their search behavior from Google to other platforms such as TikTok. The document said YouTube plans to roll out audio-first metrics for creators and integrate YouTube data into podcast measurement platforms including Nielsen, Chartable and Podtrac.

Adding a top-level landing page for podcasts is a pretty big step for a company.

As YouTube’s various verticals grow in importance and popularity, YouTube highlights these categories by offering them their own home pages on its site and displaying them as links in the main navigation bar. In particular, he did it with YouTube Gaming back in 2015 and YouTube Fashion (now Fashion & Beauty) in 2019. On mobile, it also includes a prominent YouTube Music link that opens a companion app for the YouTube Music service. Presumably, it could do the same with podcasts in the future if it wanted to capitalize on its ability to drive traffic from its flagship app to its streaming service.

YouTube’s advances in podcasting come on the heels of Spotify’s significant investment in the medium. The company spent over $1 billion in related acquisitions. He brought studios and exclusive shows to himself, launched paid subscriptions to podcasts and developed advertising platforms and services for podcasts. In June of this year, Spotify touted the revenue potential of its podcast efforts, noting that its podcast business brought approximately 200 million euros last year, which is 300% more than in 2020.