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I was wondering under what kind of legal form sites as Facebook, Twitter and such exist. Or in general, what kind of legal form do websites on which you earn revenue of advertisements have?

Even more general; what are the restrictions for starting a website that earns revenue through advertisements?

I am planning on launching a website which will have no advertisements whatsoever on startup, so this website could be regarded as a simple 'hobby' or free service. The thing is I do not really understand what changes once this website would / could start earning revenue through ads.

I hope someone will be able to help me answer these questions.

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What legal jurisdiction are you in? The answer this question will vary wildly between different countries. – Mike Scott Jan 23 '11 at 10:53

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Or in general, what kind of legal form do websites on which you earn revenue of advertisements have?

They dont have any. A website is a set of pages on a server. They are owned and operated by something, but the question in itself is like "what legal form does a UPS truck have" and makes no sense.

The examples you gave are all US style corporations. They are so, mostly, because - guess what - they ARE in the US.

Even more general; what are the restrictions for starting a website that earns revenue through advertisements?

Again, like for 99% of the businesses (outside heavy regulated areas like doctors and / or resturants for which you may need special training etc.) the type of business is totally irrelevant. Whether you have a website, sell clothes in a shop or run around runing a cleanning business - it is all the same. Open a legal business. Which regquires registration / licensing, thn goes on to paying taxes.

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I should indeed have been more specific. As a non-native English speaker it's quite hard to formulate my question precisely. I will try to explain through an example. A person has a blog which he uses in his free time to talk about cars. His blog receives a lot of traffic. He therefore decides to use Adsense to generate some revenue. – user6766 Jan 23 '11 at 12:45
Tried to edit my last comment but couldn't. I will look for an answer in my country of residence. Thank you for putting me in the right direction. – user6766 Jan 23 '11 at 12:56
If you tell us your country we may be able to help further, but - the internet is global. – NetTecture Jan 23 '11 at 13:04
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the corporate entities are all "C Corporations"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_corporation

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