YouTube’s 22 million paying subs represent just 1 per cent of YouTube’s total 2 billion monthly visitors, with Pichai saying that there is “significantly more room” to grow that figure.

“It’s still in the early days there,” CFO Ruth Porat said, adding that Google parent company Alphabet is “making the sizable investment to build it out, taking the long-term view here”.

Alphabet also revealed that YouTube had $15.15 billion in ad revenue for 2019, up 36 per cent from the year prior, with Porat noting that the company pays the majority of ad revenue to creators.

YouTube Premium, priced at £11.99 per month in the US, is positioned as a way to avoid adverts providing ad-free access to all videos (including music), plus offline streaming, background playback and early access to YouTube Originals.