Helping creators diversify their revenue
Apr 29, 2021 – [[read-time]] minute read
At YouTube, we believe creators and artists should be able to transform their passion into a business. We first kicked off these efforts over thirteen years ago with the launch of the YouTube Partner Program, and since then, we’ve rolled out a multitude of ways that creators can make money beyond ads. Paid Digital Goods like Super Chat, Super Stickers and channel memberships are an important part of our focus because they help creators make more money while strengthening the relationship with their viewers. Over the past year, we’ve seen fans and creators increasingly turn to these products to connect with each other.
In fact, in 2020, over 10M viewers bought their first Paid Digital Good (Super Chat, Super Sticker, or channel membership) on YouTube.
And over 140K channels earned money from Paid Digital Goods on YouTube in the month of December 2020 alone -- an increase of over 140% since December 2019.
Notably, the number of channels that earn a majority of revenue from these products in 2020 was more than 3x the number from 2019.
In 2020, YouTube creators earned over 4x as much revenue from channel memberships compared to 2019. For example, Rachana Ranade is working to help people learn more about financial literacy in India. She enabled memberships in 2020, and it's now the majority of her YouTube revenue -- more than $100,000.
2020 was a difficult year in more ways than one, and it was great to see people from across the globe come to YouTube to support their favorite creators. We’re excited to continue helping creators and artists diversify their revenue and grow their businesses on YouTube. To learn more, check out free resources like the monetization learning toolkit on Creator Academy.