[e12e]

If we go by some guesstimates and youtube's numbers[1], if youtube were to target 6 billion in gross revenue (slightly up from 2013 gross ad revenue) each of it's one billion monthly unique visitors would have to pay 50 cents a month for youtube access. That's not accounting for the simplification of the hosting platform sans ads (but that might even out, or be eclipsed by taking payment).

So, if 1 in 100 signed up for 5 USD/month access, youtube would still make more (gross) than on ads. 1 in 100 might of course be a far too optimistic conversion rate.

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/12/googles-y...

http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

[sentenza]

Maybe they should also make micro-donations to the authors of videos possible?

They'd get a cut of the payment as profit and it would also "incentivize the content creators" (I feel dirty now.).