YouTube is struggling to keep up with other platforms for influencers and content creators. What started as a website for people to share silly videos for has become an extremely large network of c-list celebrities that make money off of ad revenue and get paid to promote products to their millions of subscribers. But YouTube is also extremely limited in what it allows those creators to do. They get their money for every ad viewed, and that’s about it.
Other services, such as Twitch and Instagram, have given their users others way to gain more revenue. For example, Twitch subscriptions cost money, but offer more benefits. Instagram has a higher outreach for spotlights on products, so companies can reach out for a quicker turnaround time. So how is Youtube going to compete?
They’ve decided they’re going to pay their content creators between 10 and 100 thousand dollars in order to promote their new features to their audience. These paid services, which include the already existent YouTube Red, are expanding to include membership services, a paid chat system such of the likes of Discord, and a new merchandising system. Previously, creators would have to outsource their merchandise. Now, YouTube wants to make sure it doesn’t lose influencers, which means they have to dish out the big bucks in order to keep users around.
Social media has grown so much that every day, new programs are threatening the same services and platforms we have been using for years.
