The Associated Press has is reporting on some exciting comments made by YouTube co-founder Steve Chen:

Taiwan-born Steve Chen, co-founder of wildly popular video sharing Web site YouTube, said Saturday consumers in many parts of the world will be able to access the site on mobile phones by next year.

Chen made the remarks as he spoke to hundreds of enthusiastic Web users at a forum on Internet developments in Taipei.

Commuters on subways or buses are likely to access videos of between 30 to 60 seconds each, while people traveling on longer train journeys would probably go for files of up to 10 minutes in length, he said.

mocoNews notes the significance of this development:

The company’s stated intention to allow greater mobile access to its content signals a shift in its strategy. Indeed, until now YouTube has barred redistribution of its content (even going to far as to lock out an encoding company that enabled access) and let mobile operators partners play the role of gatekeeper.

(via mocoNews)

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