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Tencent News Ji Zhenyu

Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube, a video platform owned by Google, died on August 9, US time, at the age of 56. Her husband announced the news on social media that day, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also expressed condolences on social media later that day.

Pichai said, "I am deeply saddened that my dear friend Susan Wojcicki has passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. She was a central figure in Google's history, and it is hard to imagine a world without her. She was an amazing person, leader, and friend who had an enormous impact on the world, and I am one of countless Googlers who are better for having known her. She will be missed greatly. Our hearts are with her family. R.I.P. Susan."

Wojcicki served as CEO of YouTube for nearly 10 years from 2014 to 2023. She was one of Google's first 20 employees. Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion, which seemed like a huge amount at the time.

She is famous for renting the garage of her Menlo Park, California, home to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were doctoral students at Stanford University.

Wojcicki originally worked as a marketing manager at Google. It was at her suggestion that the two founders of Google began to pay attention to the early YouTube video website and eventually decided to acquire it.

Under her leadership, YouTube became a multibillion-dollar business for Google, generating $8.1 billion in revenue from ad sales in 2023, accounting for nearly 10% of parent company Alphabet's total revenue.

Wojcicki's family has deep ties to Silicon Valley and the wider Bay Area. One of her sisters, Anne Wojcicki, is the CEO of the genetics company 23andMe and the ex-wife of Google founder Blinder. Another sister, Janet, is a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Meanwhile, their mother, Esther Wojcicki, is a well-known educator who has written extensively on how to raise successful children.

In February of this year, Wojcicki suffered a major life change. Her 19-year-old son, a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, died unexpectedly in his dormitory due to drug abuse.