YouTube adds channel memberships
June 22, 2018
YouTube has rolled out new monetisation and engagement features for users who upload content to its video-sharing website.
Speaking at the VidCon 2018 conference in California, YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan revealed that the Google-owned streaming platform aims to help YouTubers monetise their content through means other than advertising.
The first of these features is a rebrand of a trial service the company has been piloting called ‘sponsorships’. Fans of a particular YouTuber could pay $4.99 per month to receive exclusive perks such as custom badges, emojis and live chat access.
YouTube has now rebranded this initiative as “channel memberships” and will be rolling it out to all YouTube channel owners with more than 100,000 subscribers, and aged 18 or above. The price will remain the same.
YouTube has also made selling merchandise easier for popular YouTube channels. All eligible US channels (again, those with more than 10,000 subscribers) will be offered a carousel store through which they can sell their own branded goods, in conjunction with Teespring, with more merchandising companies to be added in the future. YouTube will take a zero cut of merchandising profits.