Youtube Background

YouTube was launched in 2005 and has since then grown to be the 6th most popular site in the world, averaging over 68 million unique visitors each month. That’s insane for a website that just turned three years old. With all the new technology coming out and the increasing amount of people visiting YouTube, video sharing can only go up. Advertisers are noticing this also and are jumping at the chance to advertise on the site. By eMarketer's count, video ad spending will account for 3.5% of the $21.7 billion projected to be spent on online ads this year, up from 2.4% of online ad spending last year. The scary thing is, barring the death of the internet, these numbers will only continue to grow.

The newest form of advertising is video ads. The old banner ads are becoming less and less productive, and advertisers are finally realizing this. Solution? Put commercials in front of videos. YouTube has a 15 second limit on these ads, but this way it ensures the ads are seen.

YouTube is also going to great lengths to ensure that user information is safe, but at the same time allows content viewing info to be gathered by advertisers so they can use behavioral advertising to target consumers. They can relate what types of videos people are watching to what kinds of products they might buy. YouTube has a relatively in-depth privacy policy, so advertisers are limited.

I personally think YouTube is a great website. As a frequent visitor I see a lot of ads, but they don’t bother me because they are short and don’t continue to pop up. Video sharing isn’t the future, it’s now, and as more people start to catch on, it can only grow in popularity.