At the 10th anniversary of VidCon, YouTube has announced new ways as well as update existing features that content creators on the platform can monetise their channels. These include Super Chat, Super Stickers, Channel Memberships and Merch shelf.
Most of the YouTube creators relied heavily on advertisement money from the company as well as their individual contacts to keep the ball rolling. Moving forward, YouTube is creating even more ways for creators to earn money while engaging with their audience.
“For the last decade, VidCon has brought fans, creators and industry leaders together to celebrate the power of online video. Last year at VidCon, I announced our next big step for creator monetization with new ways for creators to engage with their community while generating revenue. We’ve built on a number of these initiatives and added a few more,” Neal Mohan, Chief Product Office, stated.
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Following are the four new and updated monetisation features announced by YouTube.
- Super Chat: It allows subscribers to purchase messages that are highlighted in live chat session with creators during live stream or premieres. Over 90,000 YouTube channels have the Super Chat feature enabled and earn more than $400 per minute. This has led Super Chat to become the main revenue stream for over 20,000 channels.
- Super Stickers: During live stream and premieres, this feature allows subscribers and fans to purchase animated stickers. These stickers come in various designs ranging across languages and categories like sports, music, food, gaming, fashion and more.
- Channel Membership: Another cool feature which, if explored more, could become one of the most reliable sources of recurring income for YouTube channels. Till now subscribers pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to get badges, emojis and access to exclusive content such as live streams, extra videos or shoutouts. Similar to Patreon, YouTube has now created membership levels, which enables a channel to set up to five different levels with varying costs and perks.
- Merch Self: Creators will now also be able to sell their merchandise directly from YouTube. Merch shelf has partnered with Crowdmade, DFTBA, Fanjoy, Represent, Rooster Teeth and Teespring.
“Early last year, creator revenue on YouTube from Super Chat, Channel Memberships and merch was nearly zero. Today, these products are generating meaningful results to creators across the globe. In fact, thousands of channels have more than doubled their total YouTube revenue by using these new tools in addition to advertising.”
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