YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki, one of the first Google employees, is stepping down from her role at the tech giant, she said in a personal update on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Wojcicki, 54, will be replaced by her deputy Neal Mohan, a senior advertising and product executive who joined Google in 2008.
The change of guard comes as YouTube's advertising revenue fell for the second straight quarter amid intense competition for viewing time with short-form video services such as TikTok and Facebook's Reels, and streaming services like Netflix.
Wojcicki said in her update she will focus on "family, health, and personal projects", and plans to take on an advisory role at Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
She was previously senior vice president for ad products at Google and became the CEO of YouTube in 2014.
Alphabet announced last month it will cut about 12,000 jobs globally, citing a changing economic reality as it became the latest US tech giant to enact large-scale restructuring.
That announcement made Google the latest large company to announce layoffs. Previously, Microsoft officially announced that it would be laying off about 10,000 workers around the world that make up about five percent of its workforce.
Before that, Facebook owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter all announced layoffs. The Amazon layoffs have already affected its employees in Israel.