Strategy question
How would you triple the revenue of YouTube?
- YouTube
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Tests aggressive revenue-growth strategy thinking: can you name concrete, sizable levers across YouTube's actual revenue mix rather than a single feature idea.
How to approach it
- Clarify YouTube's current revenue mix: primarily advertising, with growing contributions from YouTube Premium/Music subscriptions and YouTube Shorts monetization, so tripling revenue requires moves across multiple levers, not one.
- Identify the biggest lever: ad revenue growth through better ad load optimization and improved targeting/relevance, since advertising is still the dominant share of revenue.
- Identify a second lever: accelerate subscription growth (Premium, Music, and YouTube TV) by bundling and by converting the large free ad-supported base with targeted promotions.
- Identify a third lever: monetize Shorts more aggressively, closing the monetization gap between long-form and short-form content as advertiser demand for short video catches up.
- Consider a fourth lever: expand commerce integration (shopping tags, live shopping) to capture transaction-based revenue beyond pure advertising.
- State that tripling revenue is a multi-year, multi-lever effort, and prioritize based on size of opportunity: ad revenue and subscriptions first since they are the largest existing bases to grow from.
What a strong answer includes
- Breaks down YouTube's actual revenue mix (ads, subscriptions, and emerging commerce) instead of treating it as one undifferentiated pool.
- Names Shorts monetization specifically as a real, current gap between YouTube's short-form and long-form ad yield, grounded in known industry dynamics.
- Proposes commerce/shopping integration as a genuinely new revenue lever beyond advertising and subscriptions, showing broader thinking.
- Is honest about the scale of ambition, framing tripling revenue as a multi-year effort requiring several levers rather than a single silver-bullet feature.
Common mistakes
- Proposing a single feature idea as if it alone could triple revenue, unrealistic given the size of YouTube's business.
- Ignoring YouTube's actual revenue mix and treating all revenue as advertising only.
- No sense of timeline or prioritization among the levers proposed.
Likely follow-up questions
- Which of these levers would have the largest near-term impact, and why?
- How would you avoid degrading user experience while increasing ad load?
- What would you do if advertiser demand for Shorts stayed weak despite your efforts?
More strategy questions
- This is an interview question, with a few sub-questions I was able to get after asking them: How would you determine the roadmap for a product? (Assume any product and any feature). What are the key criteria's/aspects you will consider to create this road map? How much weight will your roadmap have for user-driven features?Amazon · Strategy · Medium
- How would you launch YouTube in a country that currently has no comparable or similar products?YouTube · Strategy · Medium
- What should YouTube do with GenAI?YouTube · Strategy · Hard
- Should YouTube Shorts be separated from the YouTube app? If yes, why? If no, why?Google · Strategy · Hard
- How would you get another billion monthly active users on YouTube?Google · Strategy · Hard
- What should YouTube’s strategy be for news content?YouTube · Strategy · Hard
More questions from YouTube
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop