A half a billion views for promoted videos on Youtube

Youtube's new program, Promoted Videos, reached a big milestone: a half a billion views. The basic premise to the program is simple. Advertisers paid to have their content show up on the homepage or in search result pages on the Youtube website. This program has also had it's growth fueled by a roll-up with Adsense ad units, getting catapulted beyond the US market, and by Youtube's Video Targeting Tool.

This new product will greatly help the search company, which has operated Youtube largely at a loss. The company sees some light on the horizon with Youtube possible turning a profit in 2010.