YouTube as the juggernaut of video-streaming media, is giving even more opportunities for content creators to earn money.
This is because 'influencers' have become the dominant driver of interest in the platform, particularly among its valuable young audiences, and also because YouTube wants to keep its throne, to propel ahead of the competitions, mainly against Amazon Twitch and others similar.
YouTube's VidCon has brought fans, creators and industry leaders together to celebrate the power of online video.
"In honor of VidCon’s 10th anniversary, I took the stage to highlight how YouTube will continue to support and spark new opportunities for creators for the next ten years and beyond," said YouTube's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, in a blog post.
"We've built on a number of these initiatives and added a few more."
First of all, there is 'Super Stickers'.
This feature is built on top of 'Superchat' that allowed fans to purchase messages that stand out within a live chat during live streams and Premieres. These stickers allow fans to purchase animated stickers during these broadcasts.
Stickers come in a variety of designs, and available across different languages and categories, such as gaming, fashion and beauty, sports, music, food, and more.
Then there is membership levels for Channel Memberships.
Previously, fans pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to get unique badges, new emojis, and access to special perks, such as exclusive live streams, extra videos, or shoutouts. With membership levels, video creators can set up to five different prices for their channel memberships, each with varying perks.
"We've been testing levels with creators like the Fine Brothers Entertainment on their REACT channel, who have seen their memberships revenue increase by 6 times after introducing two higher-priced tiers," said Mohan.
Creators can also sell merch to their fans directly from their channel.
Early in 2018, "creator revenue on YouTube from Super Chat, Channel Memberships and merch was nearly zero," said Mohan. "Today, these products are generating meaningful results to creators across the globe."
He said that "thousands of channels" have more than doubled their revenue through these features, though he did not detailed the specific numbers.
YouTube claims that Super Chats are the biggest revenue source for roughly 20,000 channels, a 65% year-on-year increase over 2018. According to YouTube, more than 90,000 channels have received Super Chats from users, with some earning more than $400 per minute from utilizing the feature.
Merchandising has also become a bigger part of earning, as creators capitalized on their brand recognition, and also as. YouTube has integrated more shoppable interfaces.
Many of the tools resemble what Twitch already offers. YouTube Super Stickers for example, are similar to Twitch's Bit Emotes. Twitch has also allowed creators to have channel Sponsorships, long before YouTube.
But with YouTube becoming more mature, it's influence in the culture is based on the power of young generations that glued their eyes to the screen.
"YouTube creators are living proof that an open and responsible internet can change the world for the better. We’re going to continue working to give them the tools they need to do that," said Mohan.
With this advantage, YouTube's approach in diversifying monetization options beyond standard ad placements has rewarded the company handsomely. This in turn makes YouTube the priceless possession Google has ever owned.
But on the other part of the story, this approach seems to be a way to divert people's focus on the fact that YouTube has failed in enforcing policies around things like hate speech.