YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley revealed over the weekend at South by Southwest Interactive that he will soon launch his own video-sharing site that may rival the very company he helped start.
Hurley was part of the team that sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006. He stepped down as YouTube’s chief executive in 2010, although he has stayed involved with YouTube in an advisory role and worked on several projects.
But now he’s about a month away from releasing his own product, which will be “primarily video-based” and give people the flexibility to “work together and create content.”
“I wish [South by Southwest] was a month later because I could unveil the new product,” Hurley said during a Q&A with Digg founder and Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose on Saturday.
At first glance, it sounds like Hurley is trying to create something to rival YouTube, but he explained to Rose that wasn’t the case.
He said that his plan wasn’t to make a better YouTube. His focus was on making a better platform for collaboration.
“We’re not setting up to [kill YouTube]—now,” Hurley added, noting there would always be a place for YouTube online.
Hurley wouldn’t go into further detail aside from a vague explanation on the collaborative focus of his product, but he did give the audience insight into how YouTube was courted by Yahoo! before ultimately going to Google.
“Yahoo! didn’t necessarily step up the way Google did. … We knew they were going to give us the support,” he said.
Whatever Hurley has hidden up his sleeve, we’ll find out soon enough.
Photo via YouTube/YouTube
