15 years later: How Google’s acquisition of YouTube created a monopoly on video, search, and ads

When Google announced in 2006 that it would be acquiring YouTube for $1.65 billion, it noted in the first paragraph of the announcement that “YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.”

15 years later, not only is YouTube heavily integrated into Google’s ecosystem but Google has leveraged its ownership of both platforms to dominate online video, search, and ads and carve out significant advantages for itself that aren’t available to alt-tech platforms.