Live from VidCon: Creating new opportunities for creators

For the last decade, VidCon has brought fans, creators and industry leaders together to celebrate the power of online video. In honor of VidCon’s 10th anniversary, I took the stage to highlight how YouTube will continue to support and spark new opportunities for creators for the next ten years and beyond.

More revenue streams, more money for creators

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.

• Super Chat allows fans to purchase messages that stand out within a live chat during live streams and Premieres. There are now over 90,000 channels who have received Super Chats, with some streams earning more than $400 per minute. And Super Chat is now the number one revenue stream on YouTube for nearly 20,000 channels - an increase of over 65% over last year.
• Leaning into this momentum, we’re introducing Super Stickers. This new feature will allow fans to purchase animated stickers during live streams and Premieres to show their favorite creators just how much they enjoy their content. Stickers will come in a variety of designs across different languages and categories, such as gaming, fashion and beauty, sports, music, food, and more. These stickers are fun, and we can’t wait for you to use them in the coming months!

• With Channel Memberships, fans pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to get unique badges, new emojis, and access to special perks, such as exclusive live streams, extra videos, or shoutouts. Today, we’re adding one of the most-requested features: membership levels. With levels, creators can now set up to five different price points for channel memberships, each with varying perks. We've been testing levels with creators like the Fine Brothers Entertainment on their REACT channel, who have seen their memberships revenue increase by 6 times after introducing two higher-priced tiers.
• Our Merch shelf with Teespring allows creators to sell merch to their fans directly from their channel. And today, we are adding 5 new partners, so eligible creators merchandising with Crowdmade, DFTBA, Fanjoy, Represent, and Rooster Teeth can also use the Merch shelf.

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.

Helping creators amplify their positive impact

Every day, people from around the world come to YouTube to learn something new - from math, science and literature to language lessons, music tutorials and test prep. Today, we’re introducing Learning Playlists to provide a dedicated learning environment for people who come to YouTube to learn. New organizational features will provide more structure, dividing a collection of videos into chapters around key concepts, starting from beginner to more advanced. Additionally, recommendations will be hidden from the watch page, allowing the viewer to focus on the lesson at hand. We understand the importance of getting this right, so we will start with content from a handful of our most trusted partners, like Khan Academy, TED-Ed and Crash Course, testing a variety of categories from professional skills like working in Java, to academic topics such as chemistry.

We’ve also seen creators use their megaphone to inspire their communities to join them in supporting those in need. To make that even easier, last year, we began to test YouTube Giving, our fundraising tool that allows creators to use their voice on YouTube to support the charitable causes they care about. YouTube Giving is moving out of beta and will be available to thousands of creators in the U.S. in the coming months! Creators simply select a nonprofit to create a fundraising campaign right next to their videos and live streams. Fans can donate directly on YouTube via a “Donate” button, making it easier than ever for creators and fans to raise funds for causes they care about on the platform.

YouTube creators are living proof that an open and responsible internet can change the world for the better. We’re going to continue working to give them the tools they need to do that.