Chart: YouTube is about to overcome Disney as the largest media company

You still don’t pay attention to YouTube enough.

I know, I know: A few You know that YouTube is not only great strength in the media, but one of the largest. But most people – even people who earn their lives in the media – do not completely get the size of YouTube. Even if we continue to emphasize it again and again.

So let’s try again, this time gracked the analyst of Moffettnathanson, Michael Nathanson: measured by Revenue, YouTube was the second largest media company in the world last year. It brought in $ 54.2 billion in 2024 – to only $ 5.5 billion in Disney.

And in 2025, planned Nathanson, YouTube should eclipse Disney and become the largest media company in the world.

Moffettnathanson

Reminder: YouTube started only 20 years ago. Google bought the company for $ 1.65 billion in 2006.

If you wanted to, you might go with Nathanson’s groups. You might say that Google himself is in fact the largest media company in the world because it generates nearly $ 350 billion in annual income, the majority of which comes from announcements. And that Meta, which generated $ 160 billion in advertising sales last year, is also much larger. You can also emphasize in his comparison, Nathanson has withdrawn parks from $ 30 billion a year from Disney, which is an integral part of the Bob Iger Empire and which is directly linked to its media properties.

But as I said, the baffles. The fact is that YouTube controls an extraordinary time and interest of its users, who are no longer just children but everyone. (Reminder: when you hear about politicians who try to reach the public via podcasts, this also means that they are trying to reach them via YouTube.) And that advertisers, who have taken the time to understand this – but now get money to achieve this audience.

More evidence of the development of YouTube? ALL RIGHT. Nathanson also predicts that the company’s YouTube television activity should become the largest paid television provider in the country by 2026, because he continues to add subscribers while Rivals Comcast and Charter loses theirs.

It also assumes that as an autonomous business, YouTube could be worth $ 475 billion and $ 550 billion – between Meta and Netflix assessments.

The fact is: everything you cut, digitally, YouTube is Ginormous.

This scale also makes the head more difficult. Unlike, let’s say, a conventional media company or a streamer, there is no flagship network, program, a film that works as a stenography for the domination of YouTube: YouTube has no “foreign things” or “Barbie” or the Marvel McU.

The closest analog would be MRBEAST, but that really does not accept – Mr. MRBEAST is enormous, but if you are not a young boy, you probably don’t look at his things. And many people who consume YouTube don’t really think they “look at YouTube” – they just look at the thing they want to watch, who is on YouTube.

So maybe it is more useful to consider YouTube as a public service – even if you don’t think about it much, you use it all the time. A public service worth half a bill of dollars.