Piper's Munster Says Google (GOOG) Needs To Charge YouTube Users

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster published a report today talking about how Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) could better monetize YouTube. Munster said YouTube should charge select users for uploading new videos to YouTube.

Gene believes YouTube will generate $323 million in gross revenue in 2009, but that will only cover its cost to operate the YouTube site.

Google's YouTube currently monetizes primarily through brands like Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Visa (NYSE: V) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) advertising on its site, but it eventually could charge users who upload content.

Piper believes YouTube could develop a hybrid model in which it charges users a small fee to upload videos not suitable to be monetized through advertising. YouTube is experimenting on a limited basis with a paid download service. YouTube enables participating video owners to choose to offer an MP4 download of their videos, free or for a fee. Most paid videos in the test are available for $0.99.

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