On Wednesday, Google-owned YouTube launched a Beta version of the ‘Memberships Gifting’ feature to a small group of creators to help them earn more money. The new Memberships Gifting feature employ the same 70/30 (Creator/YouTube) revenue split where revenue share is calculated after App Store fees on iOS (if applicable) and other charges like sales tax.
Users Can Get 1 Month of Free Access to Channels Via Memberships Gifting Feature
Furthermore, viewers who receive a gift membership via the new Memberships Gifting feature will get 1 month of access to channel membership perks like loyalty badges, custom emoji, and more. “Over the next several months, we’ll be actively expanding the feature to even more creators,” YouTube said in a statement. With ‘Memberships Gifting’, channel members can purchase a set number of channel memberships (5, 10, 20) in a single purchase, that YouTube will “gift” out to other viewers in your live stream.
“Viewers who receive gift memberships do not pay any charges and as the creator, you receive your usual revenue share from each transaction,” said the company. At the moment, buying gift memberships on mobile is not available during the Beta. Existing channel members click the $ button next to the live chat to purchase gift memberships on live streams. “Memberships Gifting is only available for viewers to purchase on desktop live streams. We’re working on bringing this to mobile soon,” said YouTube.
Moreover, during the Beta, the only way to opt-in is to click ‘Allow Gifts’ on a gift membership announcement that shows in the live chat when someone has purchased gift memberships. The new Memberships Gifting feature of YouTube is like Twitch’s subscriptions where users have been able to buy gift subscriptions for some time.
Twitch is Giving Smaller Cut of Revenue to Content Creators
In recent years, multiple high-profile streamers have had to reject Twitch to join YouTube Gaming. However, Twitch has continued to be the biggest US-based platform for live streaming. Last month, there were reports about Twitch partners getting s smaller cut of revenue from the subscriptions under a new monetization model introduced by the Amazon-owned platform.
Read more: YouTube Music is Now Testing a New Playlist UI Redesign on its Android App
