Advertisement

48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

Google needs to strike a balance between pleasing advertisers and those who upload videos to YouTube and are free to take creations elsewhere if unsatisfied with their shares of ad revenue

YouTube said Wednesday that 48 hours of video are being uploaded to the video-sharing site every minute, up from 35 hours per minute at the end of last year.

The Google-owned site, which was founded in May 2005, also said it was attracting a staggering three billion views a day, a 50-percent increase over last year.

"That's the equivalent of nearly half the world's population watching a YouTube video each day, or every US resident watching at least nine videos a day," YouTube said in a blog post.

YouTube said the footage upload rate had grown from eight hours per minute in 2007 to the current 48 hours per minute.

Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search and advertising giant has not yet announced a profit for the site despite its massive global popularity.

YouTube has been gradually adding professional content such as full-length television shows and movies to its vast trove of amateur video offerings in a bid to attract advertisers.