The career of Susan Wojcicki, currently head of the YouTube platform, could have taken a completely different turn. This is what the forthcoming book reveals Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination by Mark Bergen. In this book, the latter indeed recounts that Susan Wojcicki, one of the pillars of Google for more than two decades, discreetly discussed his departure from the American group in 2014 to become Elon Musk’s right-hand man at Tesla, according to CNBC. who got hold of the good sheets of the book.
At that time, Susan Wojcicki, the originator of the AdSense program, was in charge of Google’s advertising activities and was looking for a position with more responsibility. At the same time, Google co-founder Larry Page was preparing to let go of the reins of the company and was considering handing it over to Sundar Pichai, which actually happened in 2015.
An appointment to clear the way for Sundar Pichai
In this perspective, Laszlo Bock, then director of human resources of Google, declared that he “had suggested that Page could more easily pave the way for his designated successor by sending Wojcicki to YouTube”, writes Mark Bergen. A recommendation followed by Larry Page, since Susan Wojcicki became the boss of YouTube in 2014 to everyone’s internal surprise, according to the book.
This appointment therefore put an end to the possibility of a departure for Tesla, where a position of chief operating officer awaited her. By replacing Salar Kamangar at the head of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki has become one of the most influential senior executives of the American firm. It must be said that she had largely contributed to its emergence, since she had left Sergueï Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, to work from the garage and a guest room of her house in Menlo Park when they launched their company in 1998. The following year, Susan Wojcicki joined the American group never to leave again, despite pleas from Elon Musk’s foot. Last year, YouTube generated nearly $29 billion in revenue.