Youtube planning to share revenue with users

San Mateo (CA) - In addition to the much sought after Internet fame, amateur videographers may also soon be getting some cash for their efforts, as the wildly popular site Youtube has announced preliminary plans to share its revenue with users who submit their own videos.

In an announcement made over the weekend, Chad Hurley, one of the people who created Youtube, said that the company is "getting an audience large enough" where it has an "opportunity to support creativity, to foster creativity through sharing revenue" with users. "So in the coming months, we are going to be opening that up," Hurley said.

It is the first major shift in the way the user/site dynamic works since Google acquired Youtube in a massive $1.65 billion purchase last November.

Youtube is still working with media companies to figure out how to deal with copyrighted content that is posted without the copyright owner’s consent. Hurley did not give any details about the revenue-sharing mechanism, but they would most certainly have to ensure that no one profits from posting videos they did not make or do not have the legal authority to share.

The new plan might be like what competitor site Revver offers. Revver splits its profits generously with its users, offering 50% of all ad revenue generated from their videos. The new move from Youtube is likely aimed at taking away the exclusivity of that benefit at Revver, trying to gain even more of the Internet video market share.