Amazon launches Video Direct, its plan to kill YouTube by giving people money for footage they upload

The service is the latest battle in the war between Amazon and Google for video streaming

Amazon is launching a new video service that will let people upload their own films – and then make money from them.

In what appears to be an attempt to take on YouTube and its “Partners” service, which lets people share the advertising proceeds from their videos, the company is launching Amazon Video Direct. Users of the service will have their videos features in the main Amazon Video app.

Creators of videos will receive a share of the money made from Amazon Prime subscribers, who must pay to be a member of the video service. They’ll also get a cut of money made through rentals, purchases, subscriptions and people seeing ads, as on YouTube.

The makers of videos will be able to choose whether or not videos are uploaded as part of Amazon’s Prime service. If not, they will be made available for free – making it the first time that Amazon has given away videos.

The feature will initially launch with a range of partners such as How Stuff Works and The Guardian. It isn’t clear whether the company will let normal people take part in the deal, as YouTube does.

The new launch is just the latest step in the battle between YouTube and Amazon for video streaming. Last summer, Google launched YouTube gaming – a devoted site that is meant for live-streaming games and took on the Amazon-owned Twitch service.

Unlike Netflix and YouTube, which are both available almost everywhere in the world, Amazon Video still has a very limited reach. At the moment, it is only available in the UK, US, Germany, Austria and Japan.