In an interview with Sarah Meyers on the site Pop17, YouTube co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Steve Chen said that the video sharing site plans to launch a live streaming service this year.

"We'll do it this year. Live video is something we've always wanted to do but haven't had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google we hope to launch something this year," Chen said in the video posted on Sarah Meyers’s blog.

"Live video is just something that we've always wanted to do, we've never had the resources to do it correctly," said Chen.

Although YouTube will be the last video sharing site to add live content, it is certain that once it happens, many smaller live streaming sites will lose ground in front of the most popular online video site.

Sites such as Livevideo, Stickam, BlogTV or JustinTV will probably lose their popularity unless they make some significant technological changes.

Live streaming on YouTube may become part of Google’s business plan, as the same technology could be used in other services, such as Google Apps. This new service could provide videoconferencing to companies.

Chen and his co-founder, Chad Hurley, decided to sell YouTube to Google Inc. last October, for $1.6 billion. Currently, his Google shares have reached more than $300 million.

Yahoo also launched a similar service as “an experimental release” earlier this month. The unique feature in the service is the ability to see people who are watching the same video, if their webcams are connected to the service. Live chat is also available while the video is playing.