YouTube Opens Channel Memberships To More Creators And Adds Monetization Options

As the largest video-sharing website, YouTube has become synonymous with online streaming.

But that doesn't mean everything flows smoothly. After controversies regarding ads appearing next to extremists' contents which resulted in major advertisers fleeing the platform; the case of Logan Paul, as well as Nasim Aghdam, the woman identified as the shooter who attacked YouTube's office and allegedly took her own life.

So no, YouTube isn't having a great year. But it's patching itself up, and one further attempt is by introducing options for video creators to make revenue that supplement their advertising revenue.

Most of the options resemble what other platforms have tried, but in YouTube's case, the company wants to appeal existing users which may have been disappointed by its rules. Here, it wants to alleviate the problems YouTubers have been facing over 2017.

Channel Memberships

At VidCon, the annual conference for online video makers,.YouTube's chief product officer Neal Mohan, introduced a $4.99 Channel Membership that allows users to pay for exclusive contents on a channel. The contents can be either emoji, livestreams, special badges, and extra videos, depending on what the content creators have to offer.

This feature that is similar to Twitch's subscription program, has been launched to a small group of users in a beta test as "Sponsorships." And YouTube is making it available to eligible users with over 100,000 followers.

Channel Memberships

Merchandise

The next is an introduction of a merchandise shelf which allows video creators to sell things underneath videos. Until this moment, creators that want to sell something had to link their storefronts in the description of their videos.

With this merchandise shelf, video creators can show off the prices, and even show pictures of items they want to sell.

Merchandise

Premieres

The third feature is Premieres, which allows video creators to show off pre-recorded videos in a livestream with a public landing page where they can interact with fans as the video goes live. Just like what the name suggests, it also has Super Chats where users pay to have their comments pinned on top of the stream.

The video format is available for creators with at least 10,000 subscribers.

Premieres

The need to diversify creator revenue comes as YouTube has been tightening the rules around monetization on its platform. Following brand safety concerns, YouTube began to restrict a number of channels that are eligible for monetization, and added a manual review to the creators in its “Preferred” ad partner program.

Creators responded by complaining after seeing their ability to monetize decreased in the wake of the rules.

But here, YouTube's solution of adding multiple revenue streams for advertisers don't the same concerns around brand safety that advertising does.

"Thanks to advertisers, creators around the world have been able to build businesses, creating an entirely new global economy that’s seen incredible growth," said Neal Mohan. "The number of creators earning five figures a year is up by 35 percent and the number of creators earning six figures is up by 45 percent. As in previous years, the vast majority of the revenue is coming from our advertising partners."

"We’ll continue investing here, but we also want to think beyond ads," he added. "Creators should have as many ways and opportunities to make money as possible."

Published: 
21/06/2018