YouTube brings TrueView mobile ads

To monetize the ever increasing mobile traffic from smartphones and tablets, YouTube has announced the launch of TrueView in-stream video ads for mobile devices. YouTube content creators can now increase their revenues based on the video sharing website's mobile visits, which means that YouTube does away with an ad-free mobile viewing experience. It was bound to happen at one point or another.

In 2011 mobile traffic accounted for 20 percent of global YouTube views and its growth has been "phenomenal", according to Phil Farhi, YouTube group product manager. More than a trillion views marked 2011 for YouTube, meaning in excess of 200 billion mobile views were not monetized coming from the then 350 million mobile devices. According to YouTube, TrueView in-stream video ads are preferred to the standard video advertisements, since increased revenue can be generated from it. Responding to the announcement on YouTube one user stated that 1.3 million visits each month, accounting for 72.8 percent of his views, come from mobile devices, which is "lost" revenue.