👉 Background: YouTube started out as an innocent video-sharing website, and it has since become the world's biggest video content platform with a casual 2.7 billion active users. It's the platform that gave us cultural icons like Nyan Cat, Charlie Bit My Finger, and the OG internet influencers.

👉 What happened: Now, Youtube is testing a new 'Playables' feature that allows users to play arcade games on desktop and mobile from within YouTube. This will expand their current focus on video-game streaming.

👉 What else: Google has made attempts to tap into the gaming space through other avenues, like their cloud streaming service Stadia. But Stadia was discontinued in January after not being able to find a space for itself in the market.

What's the key learning?

💡The well-known saying 'build it, and they will come’ doesn’t always hold true. Especially, when there is a lack of alignment between mothership and new venture.

💡No matter how great of a product is, it won't be very successful if no one knows about it. So for a product to succeed, it needs to be good AND it also needs a solid distribution and marketing strategy.

💡Stadia, faced this exact challenge before calling it quits. And now, Google's clearly learned from their mistakes, because they're leveraging their Stadia IP to launch games through Youtube.

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