YouTube gives users ad money

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 29, 2007 at 11:42 AM

YouTube founder Chad Hurley said he is working on a ad revenue-sharing mechanism to “reward creativity,” which could be released in the months to come.

Only those users who own the full copyright of the videos they uploaded will be eligible for a share of YouTube’s ad revenue.

The company is working on “audio fingerprinting” technologies to identify copyrighted material, but Hurley declined to give additional information.

Paradoxically, Hurley also said that the lack of a revenue sharing model had helped YouTube become successful, since it allowed for easy unconditional content sharing.

Yet now that it has launched up and away, it seems the strategy is being revised. New media and newspapers alike are exploring new business models, that can efficiently combine user input and ad revenues.

YouTube counts over 70 million monthly users.

Source: BBC