Latest Leaks! YouTube Will Overtake Spotify's Podcast Market

JAKARTA - Following in Spotify's footsteps, YouTube is getting serious about getting into the world of podcasts, with many leaks circulating showing the platform's plans and monetization features for podcasts.

Previously, reports suggested that YouTube had hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the area and even started offering popular podcasters cash to film their shows.

The YouTube podcast roadmap has finally been uncovered by Podnews. Here, the company is said to be improving podcast content by testing the ability to create podcast RSS feeds.

YouTube also noted its plans to centralize podcasts on a new homepage with YouTube.com/podcasts. Although the URL doesn't work yet, it will automatically redirect to the YouTube homepage containing podcast content.

Not surprisingly, Google as the owner of the platform sees podcasts as a way to expand its advertising business on YouTube.

Another leak also mentions YouTube will show audio ads sold by Google and other partners, citing new metrics support designed for audio-first creators and the ability to integrate YouTube data into an industry-standard podcast measurement platform.

Citing TechCrunch, Thursday, March 31, for years, YouTube has separated the service's larger content categories by placing them on their own homepage, as it did with YouTube Gaming in 2015 and with YouTube Fashion in 2019.

In addition, YouTube is also helping to strengthen Google's music streaming service, YouTube Music, which competes with other services such as Spotify, where podcasts are an advantage.

Spotify is known to be trying to dominate the podcast ad market and has made several acquisitions to bring related AdTechs internally.

As a result, Spotify has since been able to sell its own ads, introduce streaming ad insertion technology, launch its own audio ad marketplace and try out new ad formats.

Meanwhile, as a video-centric platform, YouTube has lagged behind most of this ad market. It's not certain when YouTube will start realizing its Podcast roadmap, but it is claimed to start this year.