YouTube are starting to roll out a new gifted subscription feature, just like that which is so popular on Twitch.
While YouTube Gaming has made strides in the livestreaming space, with popular creators like Valkyrae, Ludwig and TimTheTatman among their ranks, they’re still some way off being as big as Twitch for livestreams.
The platform obviously lends itself mostly to video-on-demand (VOD) content, but has been growing out its live services over the years, and who better to take inspiration from than Twitch?
While they play catch-up to the Amazon-owned streaming service, YouTube looks set to introduce a feature that has made Twitch so popular for both broadcasters and viewers — gifted subs.
According to a tweet from the official YouTube Creators Japan account, gifted subs (or ‘memberships’ as they are known on YouTube) are rolling out to certain channels now, presumably ahead of a full launch.
“New Membership Gift Alpha Edition,” the tweet reads. “For creators using livestreaming and membership, this is a function that allows existing channel members to give membership rights to other viewers.”
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新機能 メンバーシップ ギフトα版✨
ライブ配信とメンバーシップをご利用のクリエイター向けで、既存のチャンネルメンバーが他の視聴者にメンバーシップの権利を贈れる機能です💡※現在はごく一部のチャンネルでテスト中の機能になります。
— YouTube クリエイター (@ytcreatorsjapan) February 3, 2022
They link out to their YouTube membership page, with FAQs on membership and benefits around it. Gifted memberships allow users to essentially cover membership costs for other viewers, giving them one month of membership for free.
This move comes a few months after it was first revealed that gifted subs and raids would be coming to YouTube, so it looks like the plan didn’t take too long to come to fruition.
Whether this is only currently rolling out for Japanese creators, or that they were simply the first to announce it, isn’t yet clear.
