By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

When Soribada and Napster, the leading online file-sharing services in South Korea and the United States, started losing popularity after starting to charge for something that used to be free, they proved that things just don't seem as good when attached with a price tag. Will this be the case for online videos?

Pandora.TV, the country's largest user-generated video site, equivalent to YouTube, will soon provide an answer after it launched the world's first paid video download service last month. YouTube, the world's No. 1 online video community, started offering test downloads Thursday, but limited the service to only a few of its partners.

User-created content (UCC), which is synonymous with amateur online videos, took the Korean market by storm in 2006 and has since been increasing its popularity among savvy Internet users.

Users have been creating and uploading video clips that feature anything from celebrity parodies, how-to lessons and short movies.

Content created by ordinary users has been available for free, but Pandora.TV took a step toward paid-for content in a bid to create a new revenue stream. Video files cost 100 won each for normal resolution and 200 won for high resolution.

Downloadable files will be limited to only those that have been author-approved for downloading. The move will allow viewers to access videos offline, particularly on portable devices without Internet access.

``We decided to offer paid services to help lessen the financial burden of running a heavy network,'' said an official at Pandora.TV, who said more work will be done to enable a wide range of devices to support modern video formats.

Industry watchers are closely following how Pandora.TV's decision will boost its profitability and whether it will end up repelling users unwilling to pay.

Copyright infringement is also a concern, as the online contents market is already dogged with various copyright issues.

However, Pandora.TV downplayed the worries, saying that copyright problems don't pertain only to UCCs and it will work out any glitches as the service matures.

Considering the market No. 1 player's new venture, rivals like Daum's TVPot and Mgoon may start flirting with the revenue-generating option as well.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr