YouTube will give users a cut of ad revenue

29 January 2007 17:09 GMT / By Amber Maitland

YouTube will share ad revenue with users who upload videos to the site, its co-founder Chad Hurley said.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Hurley said, “In terms of paying users revenue against the content that they are uploading, we definitely are going to be moving in that direction".

“We feel we are at a scale now that we will be able to do that and still have a true community around video.”

Hurley went on to tell the BBC that the system that the company is developin will “reward creativity.”

Although it's not quite decided what sort of advertising will be employed, it could be a mixture of different ads, including short clips shown ahead of the film or video that may only last about 3 seconds or so.

The offer, of course, will only be given to those who upload content for which they are the copyright owners.

YouTube has millions of viewers, but so far, makes very little money. The addition of the advertising will monetise the site.

Full tags

Software, Online, Social networking, YouTube