I wouldn't say necessary, but I also don't think it's unreasonable. They're simply doing what is in their interest to do. YouTube generated about $30 billion i

I wouldn't say necessary, but I also don't think it's unreasonable. They're simply doing what is in their interest to do. YouTube generated about $30 billion in revenue last year. Google don't break out their operating or net numbers, but I'd be pretty confident that they are already quite profitable. What is reasonably apparent though, is that their user growth is flattening [1], and thus their revenue also [2]. Trying to increase ARPU is the obvious move, as it was with search. [1] https://infogram.com/youtube-users-1h1749vqe9nzl6z https://infogram.com/youtube-users-1h1749vqe9nzl6z [2] https://infogram.com/youtube-revenue-1hxj48pqyenmq2v https://infogram.com/youtube-revenue-1hxj48pqyenmq2v