This is a blog response to Naaz’s blog about annoying advertisements on YouTube.  YouTube currently has 4 main types of advertisements running on its site, including home page advertising, promoted videos, banner ads and recently introduced preroll ads (which run 15-30 seconds before the video starts).   Users are constantly bombarded by advertisements.  So the question remains, are YouTube ads really necessary?

As a frustrated viewer myself, I thought that YouTube ran too many ads on its site and that this took away from the viewer’s experience.  However after reading Naaz’s response and the linked article; I realized that YouTube is a fairly new company and would definitely benefit from advertising.  There are 2 billon views on YouTube everyday and a video being uploaded every minute, all this activity wouldn’t be possible without the support from advertising.  YouTube also have a competitive advantage over other media sources because YouTube can easily identify a specific target market based on the type of video being watched.   Since the Internet and websites like YouTube are becoming increasingly popular, YouTube will have the ability to experiment with different types of advertising over other media sources.   In conclusion, yes ads are necessary for the continued growth and expansion of YouTube.

Sources:  http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/10/17/YouTube-Wants-Big-Brands-Advertising-Bucks.aspx