Youtube to share profits with users

Video-sharing phenomenon Youtube is planning to share the advertising revenues it generates with millions of users.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Saturday, Youtube founder Chad Hurley said that he hopes to boost the creativity of amateur video makers by sharing the spoils. More than 70 million videos are viewed each day on Youtube. Hurley already received his own windfall in November 2006 when he and other co-founders sold Youtube to Google for $1.65bn.

“We are getting an audience large enough where we have an opportunity to support creativity, to foster creativity through sharing revenue with our users, " said Hurley. “So in the coming months, we are going to be opening that up.”

No details were released on how exactly the scheme will work and how much video creators will be paid. Another video-sharing site, Revver, announced the first revenue sharing scheme back in 2005 but is now suffering major setbacks having lost key co-founders and staff in recent weeks.

Hurley was speaking at a discussion on the next stage of the internet’s evolution, alongside Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Catarina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, the Net’s largest photo sharing site.