Like so many next-generation web startups, YouTube is a great idea in search of a business plan.  What started as simply two friends–Chad Hurley and Steve Chen–trying to figure out how to share home videos online–has now blossomed into a Web 2.0 megahit with viewers eyeballing more than 70 million short videos a day–and uploading 60,000 or so new ones for others to view. 

How YouTube plans to convert that traffic into a sustainable business is the subject of a page one article in today’s Wall Street Journal (alas, subscription required).  In a nutshell, Hurley and Chen are quietly building a Google-like online ad system which they hope will lure Hollywood and other big media producers to post teaser videos on YouTube–not only to create buzz but also to make money.   The company plans to run context-sensitive ads alongside the special videos and share the revenues with the producers.  Says the Journal:  “Messers. Hurley and Chen hope that Hollywood will come to see YouTube much as it now views network TV:  a legitimate means of distributing content with revenue and promotional payoff.” The system is expected to be running later this year.