14 DAY TRIAL // Google made a big bet when it bought YouTube and many people argued that it had overpaid for the video site. Even Google admitted that it paid more than what the site was worth at the time, but did so knowing that online video will prove crucial in the coming years.
Now, it's still not making any money from YouTube, officially, but it's is doing anything it can to drive up revenue, which may top $1 billion per year.
The latest move is one of the most aggressive, pre-roll ads will become more frequent on the site. YouTube is experimenting with a new ad type, dubbed First Watch, which is run the first time a user visits the site every day.
First Watch ads will be played before the videos users want to watch, but only if it's the first video of the day. They'll run regardless of where the users are coming from or what page they land on.
If they go straight to a YouTube channel, or an individual video, they'll still get served the ad. Pre-roll ads have always been annoying, but the hope is that since it's only once a day and it's the first time they visit the ads, users will sit through it more often. So far, the signs are good, YouTube says.
Homepage ads, which YouTube has been running for longer are becoming increasingly popular, the company says. That's part of the reason why YouTube is trying to make the homepage more appealing to users, in the hope they'll visit more often and make a habit out of it.
First Watch ads are an extension of that, the concept is to attract users as soon as they land on YouTube, but to do so even if they don't necessarily use the homepage, which is how most people end up on the site anyway.