It may have taken 16 years, but YouTube is finally growing up, at least in terms of being a viable growth driver for the world’s largest search engine, Google, and its parent company Alphabet.
For the three months ending June 30, the online video sharing and social media platform booked its highest revenues ever, delivering a $7 billion haul that marked an 84 percent increase from a year ago.
“On YouTube, if you look at the engagement across the platform we definitely see a lot of headroom for eCommerce,” CEO Sundar Pichai told investors analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “Over the past year, you’ve seen us really focus on accelerating a shift to onboarding merchants across Google so we’ve definitely invested, both in terms of bringing merchants on board, removing barriers, and providing better integration,” he added.
YouTube’s gains were included within a broader set of record Alphabet results that saw total company revenues rise 62 percent to $62 billion with net income that more than doubled. And yet, in many ways, the transformation of YouTube, helped by new initiatives like Shorts (which is Google’s answer to TikTok), was hard to ignore, with company leaders ensuring investors there was plenty more where that came from at a business segment that is oft-derided as being the home of viral cat videos.
“There’s a ton of commercial intent, across YouTube,” Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said on the webcast that was broadcast globally on its video platform. Despite its newfound earnings power, he said YouTube has long been used as a shopping and learning destination, be it for unboxing videos, product reviews or makeup tutorials. But now, Schindler said, shoppers are increasingly turning to the platform for ideas and inspiration to help them decide what to buy.
“There are a number of shopping capabilities already underway, and we’re working really hard to make it easier for users to discover and buy directly on YouTube,” he said without providing further details.
Elevated Online Activity
For all its recent gains, YouTube is still a bit player in the larger Google machine, which remains first and foremost an advertising mechanism that accounts for 80 percent of revenues.
“Our strong revenue performance in the second quarter reflects lapping the impact of COVID on our business, elevated consumer online activity, and broad based strength in advertiser spend, as well as the benefits of excellent ongoing execution by our teams,” Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat told investors.
But Google executives also went to great lengths to explain that this rising tide of eCommerce activity had not only lifted its boat, so to speak but had also raised the income and earnings of thousands of individuals whose livelihoods are made in the company’s network and ecosystem.
“We are proud that our services helped so many businesses and partners,” Pichai said. “This quarter, publisher partners earned more than they ever have from our network and we also paid more to YouTube creators and partners than any quarter in our history,” he added, noting the record rate of traffic it had sent to third-party websites over the past year.
“Through the end of Q2, $120 billion has been earned cumulatively by developers around the world,” he said.
Shopping Is Popping
Google also saw the benefit of its renewed efforts to make online shopping easier to do and online advertising more affordable to pursue. Alongside its long-term investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, the company spent heavily this quarter to upgrade its Graph search results and extend the free listing feature to millions of merchants on Shopify and other platforms.
“[This year] has been about removing integration barriers and now we have partnerships with Shopify, Square, Bigcommerce, GoDaddy, WooCommerce and more,” Schindler said, adding that the programs make it easier for businesses to get started with search, shopping, image queries or YouTube. “Then once merchants are on-boarded, there’s so much more value we can offer them,” he said, pointing to the company’s deep expertise in AI and machine learning.
Although the company gave no formal financial guidance for the current quarter, Pichai opened his remarks with comments about the company’s role in fighting the pandemic at a time when new COVID-19 variants are posing challenges to communities around the world.
“As the pandemic evolves we want to help people get the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe,” Pichai said, “and I really encourage everyone to get the vaccine, when it’s available.”
What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?
These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.
Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.
CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.
From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.
See also: The Five Not-So-Obvious Things That Will Change the Digital Economy in 2025
It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.
For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.
CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.
For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.
Read more: Training Robots Using Video Games Could Democratize Warehouse Automation
The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.
Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.
As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.
TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.
It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.
Read more: Google Reportedly Bringing Gemini AI to TV Sets
Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.
As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.
Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.
But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.