YouTube is a social web-site that allows users to upload, view, and share video clips. The service uses Adobe Flash to serve its content, which includes clips from films and television programs, music videos, and homemade videos. The main feature that allowed YouTube to grow at the record breaking speed is the availability of its services for free.

According to a news-story by Reuters, YouTube, which has become the most popular online video-sharing company, is going to introduce video brand advertising on its site, a key step toward making the free service pay its way.

?The video ads will complement the minimalist text and small graphical online advertising that it already offers in the form of banner ads, promotions and sponsorships. YouTube, which serves up an average of more than 100 million video showings daily, has been working to find ways to convert its soaring popularity into revenue,?says the article.

YouTube said in a statement that its first partner would be Warner Music Group, which will promote Paris Hilton's debut album on the site.

?The Paris Hilton Channel is the first example of a new advertising revenue model YouTube has launched called Brand Channels which will try to integrate advertiser brand names into the YouTube community. Advertisers will be allowed to customize the channels and create subscriptions so viewers are alerted whenever a new video is added to the channel,?explains Yahoo! News.

• Reuters: YouTube Introduces Video Advertising.