YouTube brought in $3.5 billion in 2013, according to a report published on Monday, a number that comes in below many analysts' estimates.
The user-generated video site is profitable, but its overall income isn't quite as high as the $5 billion number that had been widely floated, according to a story by The Information, which cited two anonymous sources.
Google does not publicly release YouTube's financials. YouTube declined to comment.
The report comes just a few months after Susan Wojcicki was named CEO of YouTube after having run AdWords and AdSense, Google's advertising and analytics offerings. Her appointment was widely regarded as a move to increase focus on monetization of YouTube amid increased competition from other entrants into the online video market including Facebook and AOL.
If the estimate is accurate, YouTube would account for less than 7% of Google's overall revenue of almost $58 billion in 2013.
YouTube Revenue as a Part of Googles Overall 2013 Income | Create Infographics
That number puts YouTube behind competitors like Facebook and Netflix, although they have widely different business models.
YouTube Reported 2013 Revenue and Competitors | Create Infographics
The article also claims that YouTube currently serves about 300 million monthly viewing hours. That is well behind the approximately 1.7 billion hours of domestic streaming hours from Netflix.