"From phones to cars to medicine, technology touches every part of our lives. If you can create technology, you can change the world."
This week's quote is by Google's money fairy - Susan Wojcicki
While Susan was working at Intel in 1998, she was halted in her work because Google was down and she wasn't able to find an important piece of information. That's when she realised how dependent she had become on “the site developed by those two dudes in my garage,” and decided right there and then that she wants to be a part of it.
In 1999, she joined Google as its 16th employee and the company's first marketing manager. One of her first projects was to reinvent the Google logo for holidays and special events. Her first doodle was an alien landing on Google, and since then Google Doodle drawings appearing daily on the homepage have become an essential part of the site.
In 2003, Susan came up with a revolutionary idea. She suggested that Google's ad offerings be available not only within search, but on websites and blogs all across the internet. That later became AdSense, which helped Google bring in over $US100 billion in ad revenue in 2018. That is why Susan is known as the money fairy of Google.
When Google launched its video sharing platforms – Google Videos, Susan took charge of it in 2005. The first video she uploaded was “a purple Muppet singing a nonsense song." Her kids had a pretty positive reaction to the video, which helped her realise the power of user-generated content and its ability to attract visitors.
Around that time, another free video sharing platform called YouTube was trending, and beating Google Videos. YouTube allowed user-uploaded content immediately available to watch. In 2006, Susan worked out company's financials to justify the purchase of YouTube to Google's cofounders. They agreed and bought Google that year for $US1.65 billion.
Over the years, Susan has been very outspoken of closing the gender gap in the tech industry. She told Forbes in a 2018 interview, “Tech is an incredible force that will change our world in ways we can’t anticipate. If that force is only 20% to 30% women, that is a problem."
Susan has been an absolute vital part of Google, overseeing the release of major platforms, including, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, YouTube Gaming and YouTube TV. Under her leadership, YouTube has grown to 1.8 billion monthly users, and has become one of the most popular social networks among teenagers.
At DDSN we resonate with Susan Wojcicki's quote and her passion for tech. We believe that if you can create technology, you can change the world. The tech industry has been growing non-stop since 90's and it will just continue to expand further. We are glad that we are part of this revolution and can create technology to change the world for better. We are passionate about our work, which is why we are able to help our clients everyday to sustain and grow with this revolution, instead of being left behind, on a daily basis.
Today's Quote
Who is Susan Wojcicki?
Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of Alphabet subsidiary YouTube, which has over 2 billion monthly users.
Before Google, Susan worked in the marketing department at Intel and as a management consultant at Bain & Company.
In 1998, Google's cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page rented Susan's garage to develop Google's search engine. She joined Google as its 16th employee in 1999 and worked on everything from AdSense and Google Analytics to buying YouTube and leveraging user generated content.
In February 2014, Wojcicki became the CEO of YouTube. She was called "the most important person in advertising," and was named as one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2015 and described in a later issue of Time as “the most powerful woman on the Internet.”
In 2017, Susan ranked sixth on Forbes' “Most Powerful Women” list. In 2018, she ranked #10 on Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women.
Susan is an inspiration for the tech industry, especially for all the women out there.
At DDSN we share Susan's passion for creating tech and changing the world for better. We have been doing this since 1997, and are proud of how many customers we have helped to stay ahead of the competition by leveraging technology.