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YouTube To Pay For User-Generated Content

Posted by kdawson on from the sharing-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Speaking at the World Economic Forum, YouTube CEO Chad Hurley has revealed that the company plans to financially compensate users who produce and upload their content. With Google's purchase of YouTube last year, followed by more aggressive attempts to monetize the site (such as the deal struck with Verizon Wireless), it was inevitable that YouTube would come under pressure to share some of those fruits with ordinary users. But why didn't YouTube pay its users from the start? Hurley said: 'We didn't want to build a system that was motivated by monetary reward. We wanted to really build a true community around video. When you start out with giving money to people from day one, the people you do attract will just switch to the next provider who's paying more. We're at a scale now that we feel we can do that and still have a true community around video.'"

4 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Old "Home Made" Videos by Mysteerie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Time to start uploading those old home made videos of the ex-girlfriend (that is if they are paying on a per view basis).

  2. Re:And they're not interested anymore? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

    I kept my videos on YouTube because I didn't want to monetize my own work!
    They have software to monet-ize videos? Cool!
    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  3. Re:View fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You are wrong
    ____
    Check out my site for free ring tones!

  4. Too late for some by doroshjt · · Score: 3, Funny

    If this was 5 years ago, the star wars kid would be rich beyond his wildest dreams.