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BFF-19
US-MEDIA-INTERNET-YOUTUBE
YouTube offers creators new ways to earn money
SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – YouTube, often criticized for not
compensating creators well enough, will allow them to set up paid channel
memberships, the company said on Thursday.
Currently the vast majority of revenue at the Google-owned service comes
from advertising and that will remain a focus, said Neal Mohan, YouTube’s
chief products officer.
“But we also want to think beyond ads. Creators should have as many ways
and opportunities to make money as possible,” he said.
Viewers will pay $4.99 a month for channel memberships giving them access
to exclusive content including livestreams, extra videos or shout-outs on
channels with more than 100,000 subscribers.
Creators will also be able to sell merchandise like shirts or phone cases
directly on their channels, the company said.
YouTube returns a small part of its advertising revenue to content creators
who regularly accuse the platform of giving them only crumbs.
The site is facing increasing competition from other platforms using more
and more video.
YouTube says it has more than 1.9 billion users but the figure only counts
those who log in via their accounts.
BSS/AFP/MR/1023 hrs