YouTube earning despite world economic woes

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Revenues at Google Inc's online video site YouTube are continuing to rise despite the poor global economy, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said on Tuesday.

"I can't comment on numbers but we had two spectacular quarters," Hurley told a news conference in Jerusalem marking the launch of Israeli President Shimon Peres's new YouTube channel.

"The economy is having some rough times but our costs continue to go down and our revenues continue to go up. It's a good combination for success" he said. "We are going to build on that."

Hurley said YouTube continues to grow in terms of traffic, reaching more than 1 billion views a day, while receiving nearly 24 hours of video every minute.

"We are not satisfied," he said. "We continue to feel we can build a better product -- better ways for partners to earn money on our site and generate revenues and better ways that advertisers can get in front of a global audience in more targeted and relevant ways." Hurley declined to elaborate.

In July, Google said the company was monetising -- showing videos supported by advertising -- more than 1 billion video views a week. It said at the time that YouTube was on track to become profitable in the "not too distant future".

Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said he opted for a YouTube channel to spread his vision of peace around the world.

Hurley said that when he started YouTube five years ago, he could not have imagined the site would be used as a "vehicle for peace".