Video sharing site YouTube is to start sharing advertising cash with users who upload the most popular clips.
Video sharing site YouTube is to start sharing advertising cash with users who upload the most popular clips.
Now owned by Google, the video service says it will extend its YouTube partnership program to allow individuals to make money when their videos are deemed eligible, based on the number of views and how widely they are shared with other users.
The move should see tens of thousands of potential partners scoring payment for their videos, up from thousands today, according to Tom Pickett, YouTube’s director of online sales and operations.
Until now, users who regularly produced videos could earn revenue from YouTube if they formally applied to be members of the partnership program but under the new system, if a video becomes popular YouTube will email the maker an “enable revenue sharing” message.
If they choose to enable revenue sharing, YouTube will try to sell advertising against their videos and pay them a share of the takings into a Google AdSense account each month.
The plan is seen as the latest step by YouTube to improve its ability to make money from the thousands of videos that are uploaded to the site every day. Google paid $1.6 billion for YouTube in 2006 but so far has seen a limited return.
Sorry, Aussie YouTubers: at this stage the pay-for-views service is available only in the United States.
