San Francisco — If you are an amateur video-grapher, then producing an online viral video may certainly bring you notoriety, but from now on it can also fetch you some cash. Google Inc.’s YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing site, on Tuesday offered a way to share advertising profits with users who post the popular videos on the site, the company announced on its blog.
Earlier, any amateur videos on YouTube never fetched a dime for the creator, even if they recorded millions of views. But YouTube is now rewarding authors of videos that keep YouTube popular and is offering to spread the wealth it generates with the authors.
Google said that it would expand its YouTube Partnership Program (YPP), to include more individuals with one off popular videos a chance to earn thousands of dollars a month. The YPP, which kicked off in December 2007, allows YouTube users to share in the revenue Google earns by selling ads against your video.
So far, it was set aside for particular users whose videos has largely been viewed by a wide audience. YouTube has occasionally extended the YPP to single videos like “David After Dentist” but will now have a more formal program to monetize individual videos.
“Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that collects lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it,” YouTube wrote in a blog post.
Under the new system, “If your video becomes popular and is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an ‘Enable Revenue Sharing‘ message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account.” Executives declined to specify how popular a video would need to be for its owner to receive the email. YouTube said it will sell ads against the clip only if the user agrees to do so.
Launching more ads on viral videos will increase income for both users and YouTube, helping bring the site closer to its goal of turning a profit. Another YouTube hits include “Battle at Kruger,” a showdown between buffalo and lions, which has racked up more than 45 million views. “Otters Holding Hands,” another viral hit, has drawn almost 13 million views.
“There is a huge amount of money to be made,” Tom Pickett, director of online sales and operations at YouTube, said during a conference call with reporters. “We have hundreds of millions of views a week that are monetized. We continue to grow that aggressively.”
Once the revenue sharing scheme is activated on a user’s video, YouTube will handle the rest of the work, selling advertising against the video and paying the user a share monthly into their AdSense account.
“Currently, this choice is available only to users in the United States, but YouTube says is hoping to roll this feature internationally.”
“We think there is tens of thousands more partners that we can generate through this content,” said Pickett.
Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for 1.65 billion dollars, however, the Mountain View, California-based search and advertising giant has not yet succeeded in drawing a profit from the site despite its massive global popularity.