YouTube has announced the global launch of Hype, a feature that allows users to promote their favorite creators, helping them gain more views and subscribers. The new option has been rolled out to videos from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers.
YouTube has announced the global launch of Hype, a feature that allows users to promote their favorite creators, helping them gain more views and subscribers. The new option has been rolled out to videos from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers.
This is reported by TechCrunch. The Hype button is located below the standard “Like” button and is already available in 39 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and India.
Each user can "pick up" up to three videos per week, giving them special points. The more points a video receives, the higher its chances of getting into a new rating - Hype Leaderboard, which can be viewed in the Explore tab. At the same time, YouTube promises to provide a larger bonus to creators with fewer subscribers, so that their works have a better chance of attracting attention.
Videos that have received fan support will be marked with a “Hyped” badge, and in the main feed you can filter only “picked up” content. If a user’s video is close to the rating, the system sends a message to those fans who supported it. For especially active viewers, there is a monthly “Hype Star” badge.
Creators will be able to track the dynamics of their “hypes” in the YouTube Studio mobile app. There is a separate Hype card with analytics and a weekly summary of data.
The idea for Hype came about after YouTube noticed a demand from its audience for tools to directly support creators. The feature is free for now, but the company is already testing in Brazil and Turkey the ability to buy additional “hypes,” which will become a new source of revenue. In the future, ratings by topic, for example, for gaming or fashion, will also appear, and fans will be able to share facts about which videos they “picked up.”
YouTube has been gradually expanding its social capabilities, introducing comments under podcasts last year and revamping its feed with a focus on videos. Hype could be an important step in strengthening engagement between creators and their audiences, as well as helping smaller channels compete with larger brands.
As a reminder, dev.ua previously also wrote about how YouTube began using artificial intelligence algorithms to process videos without the authors' knowledge and permission. This became known after complaints from popular bloggers who noticed strange artifacts in their videos.
