According to this Social Media Today report, YouTube is expanding the geographical reach of its Super Chat live-stream tipping. The feature provides live-stream creators with the ability to earn extra income on the platform from well-entertained viewers.

YouTube first introduced the tipping feature back in 2017. The benefit for live-stream viewers is they get to ‘sponsor’ their comment and have it appear more prominently in any given chat stream.


”Super-Chats”


As YouTube put it:

"The colour of your Super Chat, the period of time it stays pinned in the ticker, and the maximum message length are determined by the amount of your purchase."

The program was only available to YouTube streamers in 40 nations before the change. However, from now on 19 additional regions will be able to access the same feature.

Android Police says the new regions will be:

Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Luxembourg, Malta, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Romania, South Africa, Uruguay

YouTube has yet to reveal the usage figures for the Super Chats feature; however, some active streamers have already employed it to make significant amounts of money.

In terms of the monetization model, YouTube takes a 30% cut of all streamer earnings via Super Chats. Users are also limited to a $500 Daily and $2000 Weekly Spend Limit for tipping.

Other social platforms have also been trying to find methods for generating revenue from live-streams to help financially encourage creators to create content on their platform. Facebook has adopted a similar live-stream tipping feature but specifically for gamer-related contributors, and Twitch has been running its own version of a viewer payment system for a long time.

YouTube's Super Chat system is primarily based on a Chinese system of tipping. In China, live-streaming is a huge industry and billions of dollars flow through the vertical.

Do you guys think this will eventually take off in Western Culture? Korea is a close 2nd to China's live-streaming so it definitely seems to be working in Asia.