YouTube is the world’s second most popular website and generated almost $30 billion in revenue in 2022. That has investors wondering how to buy YouTube stock. You actually can’t buy YouTube stock: the company is a subsidiary of Google and does not trade on any public exchange. You may still be able to invest in YouTube indirectly.
About YouTube
According to YouTube’s mission, its main goal is to give everyone a voice and show them the world. Their values are based on four essential freedoms: freedom of expression, information, opportunity, and belonging.
YouTube was founded in 2005 by a trio of ex-PayPal employees: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.
YouTube was not the first online video-sharing platform to offer high-definition content to users. That was Vimeo, which launched in November 2004. Although Vimeo was the first, its growth was much slower than YouTube’s.
The public was able to test YouTube in May 2005. Sequoia Capital invested $3.5 million in November 2005, and the YouTube site was officially launched in December 2005, nearly one year after Vimeo was launched.
YouTube was receiving only 8 million views per day when it was launched. In July 2006, more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The number of views increased more than 12 times in around 7 months.
In October 2006, it was announced that Google was acquiring YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. In November 2006, Google and YouTube finalized the deal. Google restructured in 2015 to create a holding company, Alphabet Inc., which now holds YouTube as one of its subsidiaries.
In 2021 YouTube grew by 37%, and it generated $28.85 billion in revenue in that fiscal year. From 2021 to 2022 growth slowed to 1.4%, possibly as a result of market saturation and competition from platforms like TikTok.
YouTube represented roughly 11.35% of all Alphabet revenue in 2022.
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What Is YouTube’s Stock Price and Ticker?
YouTube isn’t a publicly traded company, so there is no stock price or stock ticker for YouTube. YouTube is owned by Alphabet Inc., which has two tickers: GOOGL and GOOG.
How Can I Buy YouTube Stock?
As we mentioned earlier, YouTube is owned by Alphabet Inc., so it isn’t possible to buy just YouTube stock. Instead, you can invest in its parent company.
Alphabet Inc. is listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG. The difference is that the GOOGL ticker is associated with Alphabet’s class A shares and GOOG with its class C shares. The difference between the two is in voting rights. GOOG shares have no voting rights, while GOOGL shares do (one-share-one-vote).
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Conclusion
Even though it’s not possible to buy just YouTube stock directly in the stock market, investors can instead purchase stocks from its parent company, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL). That way, you get to partially own YouTube along with other great products and companies in Alphabet’s holding. And remember, it’s always a good idea to learn how to research and choose stock before you start picking stocks on your own, even when it comes to safe bets such as Alphabet.
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FAQs
YouTube isn’t a publicly traded company, so there is no stock price or stock ticker for YouTube. Alphabet Inc. owns YouTube since 2006 and its tickers are GOOGL and GOOG.
No, Alphabet Inc. owns YouTube, so it isn’t possible to buy just YouTube stock. Instead, you can invest in its parent company – Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL).
Yes, at the end of 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock.
At the end of 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. The deal was announced on October, 9 and it was completed on November 13.
