You Tube’s co-founder Steve Chen revealed his plans – albeit sketchy - for the future, which include enabling access to the video-sharing site on mobile phones by next year, the AP reports. It’s not clear how this might compete with or complement the YouTube service already offered by mobile operators Vodafone and Verizon, for example. 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 redistrubtion 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.

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The idea is for sites such as YouTube to provide “richer content and greater mobility,” Chen said in his address at the Web 2.0 summit in Taipei. He mentioned that commuters on subways or buses are likely to access videos of between 30 to 60 seconds each, while users on longer train journeys might want to view files of up to 10 minutes in length.