YouTube's Creator Payment Model Versus Netflix Spending

Netflix made $45.2 billion in 2025. YouTube made $44 billion in ad revenue. On a like-for-like basis, these two are nearly identical. YouTube gets to $60 billion by bundling in YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, and NFL Sunday Ticket. Comparing that combined number to a single streaming service is like comparing Alphabet’s total revenue to Disney+ and declaring Google won the streaming wars. The number that actually matters: YouTube paid creators $100 billion over the past four years while spending $0 on content production. Netflix spent $16 billion on content in 2024 alone and has to keep writing that check or the library evaporates. Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. It now earns that back every 10 days. YouTube built a model where the content creates itself, the audience sells to advertisers, and the platform collects rent on every transaction. Netflix writes a $16 billion check every year just to keep the catalog from shrinking.