YouTube is all hype

New batch of features fresh off Made on YouTube 2024

Author

Backlog
September 19, 2024

YouTube Hype / youtube.com

Made on YouTube 2024 just happened and, oh boy, lots to cover.

First, I want to cover the main-ish feature: Hype.

Jessica Locke, the product manager behind this feature, tells us what it’s all about in her announcement post

Hyping is all about helping emerging YouTube channels grow by connecting them with new audiences.

Jessica Locke, PM at YouTube

The mechanism is simple. When YouTube users ‘hype’ a video, it climbs a leaderboard of the top 100 hyped videos this week, increasing its reach & discoverability. There are a few caveats:

  1. YouTube users only get 3 hypes per week.

  2. Videos from creators with over 500,000 subscribers are not eligible for hypes.

  3. The video must have been out for fewer than 7 days.

Hype presentation at Made on YouTube / youtube.com

This sounds familiar. Isn’t this… the Like algorithm? Virtually all social platforms implement some time-bound reach increase based on likes. The more likes a new [Facebook / X / Instagram] post gets early on, the more reach it gets.

So, is Hype any different?

Other than the leaderboard, the key insight I gather from Jessica’s post is the potential revenue stream:

In the future, we plan to allow fans to purchase additional hypes, unlocking another revenue stream for creators, too.

Jessica Locke, PM at YouTube

This is reminiscent of Twitch’s approach to revenue creation & sharing with creators, with an asynchronous twist.

Anxiously awaiting real impact data. The ultimate goal behind this product initiative is laudable. Giving smaller channels a fighting chance to catch up and pierce through the incumbents is an excellent way to keep the content flywheel going.

This is why I’m disappointed by the data YouTube have decided to share so far. “Beta testers in Turkey, Taiwan, and Brazil have hyped over 5 million times across 50,000 channels”, says Jessica.

These seem like vanity metrics.

Did these 50,000 channels grow during this period? Has their reach increased? Have the Hypes actually delivered? We’ll have to wait and see.

What else happened in YouTube land?

Here’s a rapid-fire breakdown:

  1. DeepMind’s Veo is coming to Dream Screen to help you generate beautiful backgrounds.

  2. Brainstorm video ideas with YouTube Studio’s new Inspiration tab.

  3. Creators can launch communities to interact with their audience.

  4. A community hub was created to facilitate the management of said communities.

  5. AI-powered dubbing is now available.

  6. Gifts will launch on vertical live videos, enabling viewers to react & generate revenue for the creators.

  7. Creators will be able to organise their videos into Netflix-like seasons.

Read more about Made on YouTube 2024.