YouTube Expands Hype Creator Support Program, Adds Summer-Themed Stickers

YouTube is expanding access to its “Hype” creator support feature, while it’s also rolling out some new, Summer-themed stickers that viewers can give to creators during live-streams.

First off, on Hype, which enables viewers to allocate “hype points” to videos from emerging channels, essentially upvoting these clips in order to help them get more reach.

The idea is that this can help to get these videos more views, with the most hyped clips ranked on a leaderboard, boosting exposure.

Hype was first launched in testing in September last year, and has been expanded to several more markets in recent months.

And now, YouTube’s expanding the program again, with viewers in a heap more regions now able to allocate Hype points to clips.

As per YouTube:

“We're expanding the ability for viewers to hype at no cost to 19 markets, including India, Indonesia, Mexico, and select EU markets. If you're in an eligible market, the option to hype will appear on creators public long-form videos uploaded in the last 7 days. Additionally, viewers in launch markets can now hype videos from anywhere it is available, not just their local region.”

So now, YouTubers will have more opportunity to help boost clips and channels that haven’t gained major traction as yet, while creators will also get additional monetization opportunities through these upvotes.

“When a viewer hypes a video, YouTube will automatically apply bonus points based on the subscriber count of the creator so that smaller creators are rewarded more points to even the playing field.”

So it could end up being a valuable driver of discovery for smaller channels, with YouTube looking to develop its Hype system into a key driver to boost lesser-known talent.

On another front, YouTube’s also rolling out some new animated gifts that viewers can send during live streams.

Which is something.

“We have a duckling, island, nap, sand castle, and watermelon. Our limited-time collections of summer-themed gifts are sure to keep your vertical live streams fresh. Monetizing with gifts can help you heat up your earning potential while you build connections with your fans and make your live streams sizzle with engagement.”

Yes, the guy from YouTube actually said these words out loud, in a video clip.

The new gifts are only available to creators and viewers in the U.S. at this stage.

Finally, YouTube has also provided some more info on its coming changes to its “Trending” pages, and how this will impact discovery.

Last week, YouTube announced that it's removing its “Trending” and “Trending Now” listings, and replacing them with a series of category-specific charts, via its “Charts” page.

YouTube has provided further info on the background to this update:

“A lot has changed in what trending means since we launched the ‘Trending’ page 10 years ago. The focus has shifted from singular viral videos to micro trends and fandoms. Today, trends are more personal and dynamic with viewers discovering what they're interested in in varying places, like recommendations, Shorts, comments, and communities. Because of this, we've seen a significant decrease in traffic to the ‘Trending’ page, especially over the past 5 years.”

As a result, YouTube is now putting more focus on personalized recommendations and community experiences, in order to better showcase popular content that's relevant to you.

“While we'll be removing the ‘Trending’ page and ‘Trending Now’ list, moving forward, you can find the most popular content in specific categories on YouTube charts. Today you can explore charts for trending music videos, weekly top podcast shows, and trending movie trailers. We'll continue to add more content categories to charts over time.”

YouTube says that, moving forward, it’ll be looking to invest in more impactful ways for creators to get discovered through new features like Hype and ‘Creators on the Rise, which will now get its own feature listing.

“To better understand what viewers trends are relevant to their channel and unique audience, creators can use the ‘Inspiration’ tab in Studio.”

So if you’re looking to better align with this shift in discovery, you can factor these listings into your content planning.