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Today's News

💸 Alphabet reveals YouTube revenue
🎙️ Hulu enters the podcast race
✍️ Netflix signs a big creator deal
🤑 Whatnot plans a $1M MrBeast giveaway
👀 OpenAI isn't happy with Anthropic

INDUSTRY BUZZ

Google is getting transparent about YouTube money. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Alphabet has revealed YouTube revenue for the first time. Its 2025 total: $60B.

The report: For the first time ever, Alphabet has revealed how much revenue YouTube generated over a year-long period. In its Q4 2025 earnings report, Alphabet confirmed that YouTube collected $60 billion in revenue last year. That number is 33% higher than the $45 billion in revenue Netflix generated in 2025.

Subscription revenue - from YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium, YouTube TV, and YouTuber's NFL Sunday Ticket - account for about $20 billion of the $60 billion figure, while YouTube's advertising revenue makes up the bulk of that number with $40.37 billion for the year. That's about an 11.7% year-over-year increase from 2024's $36.1 billion.

YouTube's ad revenue for the quarter reached $11.4 billion in Q4 2025, representing a 10% quarter-over-quarter bump over 2024. That upward trend becomes even more dramatic when you look at previous YouTube ad revenues. During Q4 2022, YouTube generated $7.96 billion in advertising dollars. By Q4 2025, that number had risen by more than 43%.

The response: Google CEO Sundar Pichai made the case that investments in AI tools and other forward-thinking products have been key drivers of YouTube's growth—but some investors don't seem to be buying it. Even though Alphabet exceeded expectations with its topline numbers ($114 billion of quarterly sales and $34.5 billion of net income), its stock price fell after the Q4 2025 report was released.

Investors unsure about the future impact of AI may be unnerved by the holding company's next steps. Alphabet has confirmed plans to increase its capital expenditures to between $175 billion and $185 billion in 2026, with much of that money going toward AI development.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Hulu is entering the video podcasting race.

Hulu has struck a deal with the Headgum network for streaming rights to the comedy advice podcast We're Here To Help. New episodes will hit Hulu twice a week, one day before they're available anywhere else. (Tubefilter)
X is testing out experimental new "Collaborative Notes," which it says are "written and updated by AI, using community input." (X)
Substack has alerted some users to a security breach that took place in October 2025, when an "unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission." (Engadget)
OpenAI has announced the launch of Frontier, "a new platform that helps enterprises build, deploy, and manage AI agents that can do real work." (OpenAI)

STREAMING BIG

Salish Matter smiling (probably about he Netflix deal).

Netflix just signed its biggest creator deal yet

The strategy: During its recent fourth-quarter earnings call, Netflix spooked investors by saying it expects lower profits this year because it's investing heavily in fresh content. Now, we know where a chunk of that cash is going: towards deals with YouTubers.

In the past, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has referred to YouTube as a sort of "farm league" where the streaming service can watch talent develop until it's time to go poaching.

That strategy has intensified over the last few months. Following its deal with kids' creator Ms. Rachel, Netflix signed Mark Rober and Alan Chikin Chow in quick succession. It's also inked deals for numerous podcasts from Barstool Sports and The Ringer, both of which air video series on YouTube (or at least they did, until Netflix came along).

The big deal: Netflix's latest deal involves an expansive agreement with Jordan and Salish Matter, a father-daughter duo with over 35 million subscribers and 300+ million monthly YouTube views. Jordan, a career photographer, launched his channel in 2017. Salish joined his videos around 2020, when she was 10 years old. Now, at 16, she's the center of most of their content and recently launched a skincare brand called Sincerely Yours with Sephora (at a New Jersey mall with a reported 80,000 people).

Netflix's full-scale, exclusive development deal with the Matters might be its most expansive creator project yet. The company says the YouTube-famous duo will "continue to develop their fan-favorite franchises alongside new projects exclusive to Netflix across scripted, unscripted, and animated series–all starring Salish, of course." It noted that the deal also includes "partnership on consumer products and experiential offerings."

The sheer size of that agreement is likely informed by the triumph that is KPop Demon Hunters. Netflix is on the hunt for another Gen Z hype machine, and may be attempting to lock in as many potential avenues of success as possible before the next big thing takes off.

BEAST MODE

It's a beast of a giveaway.

Whatnot's Super Bowl Sunday plans include a $1M MrBeast giveaway

The giveaway: Whatnot is going all in on a weekend-long "Big Game. Big Deals." promotion. The live auction platform has teamed up with MrBeast for a Super Bowl Sunday stream that will feature $1 million worth of giveaways, with items ranging from a Lamborghini Spyder and a San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl ring to a literal gold bar.

MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) will host the supersized sweepstakes on his official Whatnot account. The one-hour show will kick off at 10 PM PT on February 8 and will be streamed live from the Bay Area, with guests like Logan Paul, FaZe Lacy, and Gary Vaynerchuk popping in to join the fun.

The strategy: Whatnot's cash-fueled show isn't MrBeast's only Super Bowl collab, as the YouTube legend has also been enlisted to helm Salesforce's 30-second Big Game spot. But while putting creators in ads is a solid solution for brands seeking to reach younger audiences, Whatnot's Super Bowl show seeks to answer an entirely different question:

What if brands met creators on the platforms that are driving the creator economy?

After enjoying a banner year in 2025, Whatnot (which hosts 500,000 hours of live programming per week) has predicted that 2026 will be the year that live shopping goes mainstream. Presenting a MrBeast-sized show during the ad industry's biggest weekend seems like a smart way to point consumers in the right direction—but Whatnot isn't stopping there.

A 48-hour countdown room opens today, February 6, and Super Bowl tickets will be given away later in the day. If the stream reaches 50,000 concurrent viewers, World Cup tickets will be added to the prize pool.

WATCH THIS 👀

Anthropic's Super Bowl ads don't beat around the bush.

Anthropic's Super Bowl ads take a dig at OpenAI—and Sam Altman isn't happy

The lessons: It's been less than a month since OpenAI announced that it would begin testing ads in ChatGPT, but Anthropic has already managed to craft a Super Bowl-sized response.

A series of new commercials—including two that will air during the Super Bowl—suggest that ads delivered by chatbots will land somewhere between insulting and predatory. Each video ends with a simple tagline: "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude."

Unsurprisingly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was less than thrilled by the campaign, which he dismissed on X as "clearly dishonest."

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