Exclusive: YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views

A visitor is seen at the You Tube stand during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes, southeastern France, October 3, 2011.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - YouTube, Google Inc's video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company.

The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond the personal computer, with versions of the site that work on smartphones and televisions, and as the company steps up efforts to offer more professional-grade content on the site.

According to the company, roughly 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube every minute, compared with the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute in May.

YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006, represents one of Google's key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside its traditional Internet search advertising business.

Last week, Google said that its business running graphical "display" ads - many of which are integrated alongside YouTube videos - was generating $5 billion in revenue on an annualized run rate basis.

Still, most of the 4 billion videos that YouTube now streams worldwide every day do not make money. Three billion YouTube videos a week are monetized, according to the company.

YouTube recently redesigned its website to more prominently showcase specialized "channels" organized around different types of content. In October, YouTube announced that it had struck 100 original video programming deals with media partners including Madonna and Jay-Z. Thomson Reuters and YouTube recently announced a partnership to create a Reuters TV channel for the website.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill and Mark Porter)