YouTube to introduce semi-transparent ads
After several months of testing ads on its videos, YouTube is finally unleashing an ad format it hopes will make it some money.
The format will be semi-transparent ads that appear as strips across the bottom 20 percent of a video. Here’s an example.
The ads show up after a video plays for 15 seconds. If a user clicks on the ad, the video pauses and launches the commercial. If they ignore the ad, it will disappear in 10 seconds.
YouTube, the video leader, has been closely watched by the industry, because it has struggled to find a format that won’t turn off users. If it’s too aggressive with ads, users can flock to any number of other sites. But it can’t sit back either, because Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube and wants to make money from it. YouTube said the chosen format, announced last night, yielded good click-through results. YouTube will share the revenue with its media partners delivering the video, and the ads will seek to relevant to the video containing them. The Mercury News has more info here.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
