BANGALORE: Amazon.com Inc launched a service on Tuesday that allows users to post videos and earn royalties from them, setting up the world’s biggest online retailer to compete directly with Alphabet Inc’s YouTube.

The service, called Amazon Video Direct, will make the uploaded videos available to rent or own, to view free with ads, or be packaged together and offered as an add-on subscription.

YouTube, which has more than one billion users generating billions of views a day, offers a similar free, ad-supported service as well as a $10-per-month subscription option called YouTube Red.

Users of Amazon’s service will be able to make their videos available in United States, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Japan.