YouTube is not a streaming platform in the sense of this article series, but an infrastructure. With over 67 million users in Germany and a fifth consecutive year of CTV growth, YouTube is, measured by usage time, the most used video platform of all, ahead of Netflix, ahead of Amazon, ahead of everything else (Google / Kantar 2025).
- No subscription market, no curation claim: YouTube is neither an SVoD nor a FAST service. Content does not come from studios, but from 800 million creator channels worldwide. YouTube is the platform, not the producer.
- Advertising via the Google ecosystem: targeting runs not via the first-party data of a streaming service, but via search intent, Gmail behavior, Maps data and Android usage, the most extensive commercial data profile available in the advertising market.
- TV as a growth channel: 78% of German CTV users stream YouTube on the TV screen too, and usage time on the TV is growing at 400%, significantly faster than on mobile.
What makes YouTube structurally different?
All platforms in this article series, Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, Pluto TV, HBO Max and so on, produce or license content and market advertising space around it. YouTube does neither: the content comes from creators.
That is not a weakness. It is a fundamentally different offering. YouTube is the only platform that simultaneously combines TV reach (CTV), social media mechanisms (Shorts, community) and intent-based targeting from the Google search universe.
Advertising: Google data, full funnel
Targeting is based on the Google ecosystem: search queries, purchase intent (in-market audiences), demographic signals from Gmail and Maps, app behavior on Android. No other streaming channel can transfer purchase intent from search behavior directly into the video campaign.
Formats range from skippable in-stream ads (from 5 seconds) to non-skippable pre-rolls (15 seconds) to bumper ads (6 seconds) and Shorts ads. The format breadth is unique, and allows full-funnel campaigns within a single system.
Measurement can be connected via Google's conversion tracking directly to website purchases, app downloads or store visits, a loop that does not exist in this directness with Paramount+, Netflix or HBO Max.
Conclusion: complement, not alternative
YouTube is not a replacement for CTV advertising in high-quality content environments, but the undisputed reach anchor in the German video market. Anyone who wants to address 67 million users with intent targeting and measurable full funnel cannot get around YouTube. Anyone who wants to build a brand in premium environments needs Netflix, HBO Max or the Paramount ecosystem for that. The two logics are not mutually exclusive. They belong in every serious moving-image plan.