YouTube Is Testing A New ‘Applause’ Feature That Lets Fans Support Creators Through $2 Donations

Photo: vidIQ

YouTube is already one of the most established social media platforms when it comes to creator monetization. However, it’s looking to double down on its efforts.

The Google-owned company is testing a new Applause feature that would help creators earn money for the content they produce, whether it be live streams or pre-loaded videos. Through the Applause feature, fans can send a $2 donation to a creator by purchasing a “fun, animated applause.”

According to vidIQ, when fans are watching an applause-enabled video, they will see a “clapping’ button located between the ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons. By clicking on it, an applause animation appears on the video they are watching and a $2 donation is sent to the creator of that video. Fans can tip up to $500 per day or $2,000 per week on Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Applauses combined.

Similar to Super Chats and Super Stickers, creators will see a 70-30 revenue split with YouTube.

The feature is currently in beta for the desktop in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and the USA with select creators who have 100K plus subscribers and who are in the YouTube Partner Program having access.

Insights & Analysis:

Over the last few weeks, there’s been quite a lot of conversation around monetization for creators on social media platforms.

Byte revealed a Partner Program that enables creators on its platform to generate money while Instagram recently confirmed that is was working on its own Partner Program that allows creators to monetize IGTV content by running ads on them.

With the arrival of the Applause feature, YouTube continues to lead the charge in creator monetization while further diversifying its own monetization options for creators.

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SOURCE: YouTube