THE video website YouTube moved to cash in on its exploding popularity yesterday by launching its first “branded channel”, a platform that will allow advertisers to promote products through customised channels on the site.

The commercial push will make the privately owned website, which recently announced that it shows 100 million videos a day, a far more attractive candidate for a sale or flotation.

The branded channels will enable advertisers to create sets of web pages that will carry videos, adverts and other content.

Warner Music Group is the first to start one of the dedicated channels, with a promotional campaign for Paris Hilton’s album Paris. Fox Broadcasting, which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has paid an undisclosed amount to appear on the Paris channel to publicise its television drama Prison Break.

The move marks a change in strategy for YouTube, which to date has focused on providing a forum for members of the public to post home-made videos rather than reaping profits. It comes as the company takes part in talks with record labels, including EMI and Warner Music, over plans to make more music available on the site and amid speculation that YouTube’s backers will head to market when advertising revenues begin firing.

YouTube was launched in February last year by Chad Hurley, 29, and has raised at least $11.5 million (£6.1 million) from Sequoia Capital, the venture capital firm that backed Google. It is estimated that Sequoia invested $12.5 million in Google and that its stake in the online search engine was worth $1.5 billion when it floated in 2004.

Sequoia’s investment in YouTube is overseen by Roelof Botha, who is a director of the website. Before joining Sequoia in 2003, Mr Botha was chief financial officer of PayPal, which was bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

After the recent Sun Valley conference in the US, the annual gathering of media executives organised by the investment bank Allen & Co, it was speculated that YouTube could command a price tag of $1 billion. Some analysts have disputed that figure, citing potential copyright issues with some of the content posted on the site.

The new cool

technorati.com — blog search engine

writely.com — online word processor allowing shared access to documents

del.icio.us — users store favourite websites online for access anywhere

digg.com — users rank and determine prominence of submitted comment

meebo.com — instant messaging services

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