For a long time, the major source of revenue for both YouTube and the creators on the platform have been advertising deals. However, it looks like the video sharing platform is trying to rely less on advertising revenue by adding more ways for creators to make money on YouTube.
To do this, YouTube is bringing direct monetization features such as more merchandising partners, subscription options, and ways to tip creators during live streams, and if YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan is to be believed, these features have already started helping “thousands and thousands of channels,” earn money on the platform.
For starters, the merchandising option that YouTube unveiled last year is already being used by a number of content creators on the platform, and now the company has expanded its list of merchandising partners. According to a report by The Verge, YouTubers who have partnered with Crowdmade, DFTBA, Fanjoy, Represent, and Rooster Teeth will now be able to embed these products below their videos.
Apart from that, YouTube is bringing a new Super Sticker feature to chat. Viewers will be able to buy Super Stickers during live streams and premieres as a way to support their favorite creators. Chat has been a growing source of revenue for YouTube since it was announced back in 2017, with Mohan saying that “for over 20,000 channels on YouTube, Super Chat is now the primary means of revenue generation.” Adding Super Stickers into the mix definitely sounds like a great idea when you consider that.
That’s not all though, YouTube is also improving the Membership feature it introduced. Creators will now be able to offer up to 5 different tiers of subscriptions at different prices, each with its own set of perks.
Neal Mohan mentioned that YouTube is still exploring more avenues for revenue generation independent of advertisers, and these new additions are expansions of features that have already proven to be a success. It’ll be interesting to see what other modes of revenue generation YouTube comes up with in the future, but for now, creators can gain even more independence from advertisers on YouTube.
