YouTubers now have a brand new way to monetize their video content, thanks to a tool called Super Thanks, announced Tuesday by the company.
Super Thanks allows YouTubers to get paid directly by their fans for pre-recorded or uploaded content. The feature is very much like Super Chats, a popular monetization tool for YouTubers who livestream.
With Super Chats, fans can pay their favorite creators directly during a livestream by dropping a monetary tip or donation at one of four price points between $2 and $50. In return, the viewer who sent a Super Chat will have their comment highlighted in the live chat.
How Super Thanks works from your phone.
Credit: youtube
The new Super Thanks feature will work similarly. However, creators won’t need to go live. A fan can drop a Super Thanks on any video uploaded to a channel, regardless of how old the video is, as long as the creator is a YouTube Partner and has monetization enabled.
After sending a Super Thanks, the viewer will view an animated GIF only they will see to confirm their purchase and have their comment on the video highlighted.
This is actually fairly big news for creators. For YouTubers who don’t go live, advertising revenue share has been the main driver of revenue sourced directly from the YouTube platform. Super Thanks will provide these creators with a brand new revenue stream that doesn’t rely on ads. Instead, this revenue will come from a way more reliable factor: their fans.
Super Thanks will be available on both desktop and mobile devices. There will be four price points for viewers to purchase a single Super Thanks: $2, $5, $10, and $50, based on how much you want to give the creator.
If the Super Thanks feature sounds familiar to you, that’s because YouTube has been testing it out on a select few creators’ channels under its previous name, “Applause.”
According to YouTube, Super Thanks will be the company’s fourth “Paid Digital Good,” alongside the aforementioned Super Chats, as well as Super Stickers and paid channel memberships. YouTube takes around a 30 percent cut from these Paid Digital Goods.
With today’s announcement, YouTube will expand its Super Thanks beta to thousands of monetized creators and viewers across 68 countries. Super Thanks will continue to roll out later this year and will soon be available to all eligible YouTuber Partners.
