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Neal Mohan – It isn’t uncommon for major corporations to shake up their leadership, but it came as a surprise when YouTube’s former CEO announced she would step down.
Susan Wojcicki had been at the helm of the most popular video sharing platform for almost a decade.
However, her replacement, Neal Mohan, is more than capable of stepping up.
Mohan’s appointment also serves as good news for Web3 enthusiasts as he has always been bullish about the Web3 space.
The news
Susan Wojcicki announced her resignation through a lengthy YouTube blog post.
There, she praised the company’s leadership team, commending Neal Mohan for his role in the launch of products like YouTube TV and YouTube Music.
She also had positive words about Mohan’s understanding of YouTube as a business entity and popular community platform.
“He has a wonderful sense of our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees,” wrote Wojcicki.
The replacement
Given how popular YouTube is, Neal Mohan will have big shoes to fill in.
However, Susan Wojcicki’s commendations and his seven-year tenure as YouTube’s Chief Product Officer for more than seven years makes him the right candidate.
Throughout his career with YouTube, Neal Mohan has kept an open mind, staying updated on the internet’s evolution and its various platforms.
Last year, he published a blog post saying YouTube was looking at how they could integrate Web3 technology into the platform.
He suggested making the platform more immersive through the metaverse of utilizing NFTs.
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“We believe new technologies like blockchain and NFTs can allow creators to build deeper relationships with their fans,” wrote Mohan.
“There’s a lot to consider in making sure we approach these new technologies responsibly, but we think there’s incredible potential as well.”
Neal Mohan also wrote how beneficial NFTs can be and allow fans to own art, photos, videos, and experiences from their favorite creators.
Furthermore, he believes NFTs would allow creators and audiences to connect and collaborate in new ways.
YouTube and the metaverse
Regarding the metaverse, Neal Mohan asserts that the technology is still in development as it is “still in its early days.”
However, the new CEO said YouTube will work to develop more game interactions and “make them feel more alive.”
While metaverse isn’t explicitly developed around blockchain technology, other projects like The Sandbox and Decentraland utilize blockchain to establish ownership over various assets, including digital land.
Metaverse was a term that was first coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash.
Google’s involvement
In the past year, Google has also started to rely on Web3 services more.
In October 2022, Google announced the launch of the Blockchain Node Engine, a cloud-based service for Ethereum projects and developers.
Blockchain Node Engine hosts and [automatically] manages individual nodes contributing to a blockchain’s network.
As a result, it brings everything in the digital asset industry that people expect from Google Cloud compute, including:
- Reliability
- Performance
- Security
In December, Google announced the Blockchain Node Engine’s expansion into Solana Blockchain.
The feature will be launched around the first quarter of 2023.
Additionally, Google approved for Ethereum to transition into a less energy-intensive form of verifying transition in September last year.
Transitions are a long-awaited process typically known as the merge.
Last year, a doodle appeared on Google’s search engine, counting down on how long the process would take relating to Ethereum’s power consumption change.
The platform & Web3
Since the expansion of Web3, YouTube has seen leaders embrace the new technology.
Apart from Neal Mahon, Ryan Wyatt is a significant advocate.
The former Global Head of Gaming left YouTube after seven years to join as the CEO of Polygon Studios in February 2022.
Since then, he has become the President of the rebranded Polygon Labs.
Wyatt said that he can see parallels between Polygon and YouTube.
“There’s a lot of similarities between YouTube and Polygon in the sense [that] it’s a platform, and you’re helping people onboard onto it,” explained Wyatt.
“It’s creators in all types, uploading gaming videos, all the way to now [where it’s] games and projects being built.”
