Alphabet (GOOGL) Enhances YouTube With Recent Features


Alphabet’s


GOOGL

division Google is leaving no stone unturned to add features to its online video-streaming service, YouTube.

This is evident from the fact that the company recently added new capabilities to YouTube to provide an enhanced experience to users.

YouTube users having an official artist channel can manually show comments on Art Tracks on their channel. They can either allow all comments or hold potentially inappropriate comments for review from YouTube settings.

With the recent feature, Google aims to boost user engagement of official artist channels. This is expected to increase the adoption rate of YouTube in the days ahead.

This is expected to aid the performance of Google Services segment which contributes the most to Alphabet’s top line.

Revenues from the Google services business increased 2.5% year over year to $61.4 billion, accounting for 88.8% of the total third quarter revenues.

Growing YouTube Initiatives

Apart from the recent move, Alphabet introduced handles for YouTube channels to support creators in establishing their distinct presence and brand on YouTube.

Alphabet is further gearing up for bringing a redesigned YouTube video screen to aid users with an improved video-streaming experience.

GOOGL announced two updates on its YouTube Partner Program to let users easily join YouTube and make money from the platform, mainly from YouTube Shorts. Alphabet also introduced a Creator Music catalog for adding tracks to videos.

With consistent efforts, Alphabet remains well poised to rapidly penetrate the booming global video-streaming market.

Per a Precedence Research

report

, the underlined market is expected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2030, seeing a CAGR of 18.5% between 2022 and 2030.

Competitive Scenario

In this upbeat scenario, Alphabet faces intense competitive pressure from the likes of

Apple


AAPL

,

Amazon


AMZN

and

Netflix


NFLX

, who are making strong efforts to expand their market share in the video-streaming space.

Apple, which has lost 25.8% in the year-to-date period, is continuously witnessing solid momentum across its video-streaming platform, Apple TV. Apple’s growing interest in sports streaming remains a major positive. Recently, AAPL signed a multi-year agreement with Nike to create and produce sports movies. Further, its growing original and regional content portfolio is helping it expand its user base.

Amazon is gaining traction among customers on the back of its video on-demand service, Prime Video. Prime Video offers movies, TV series and exclusive Amazon Originals, keeping users glued to its platform. Shares of Amazon have been down 48.8% in the year-to-date period.

Netflix is riding on its diversified content portfolio, attributable to heavy investments in the production and distribution of localized and foreign-language content. Recently, NFLX expanded its partnership with Dark Horse Entertainment. Per the terms of the deal, Dark Horse will continue to give Netflix a first look at its IP for both film and TV. Netflix has lost 51.1% year to date.

We believe Apple, Amazon and Netflix’s growing initiatives in this potential market is likely to remain a threat to Alphabet’s market position.

Shares of GOOGL have been down 38.4% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the

Computer and Technology

sector’s decline of 36.1%.

Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

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.


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