• New Feature in YouTube Mobile App: YouTube added a new feature that allows content creators to connect with fans more personally. It opened mobile live-streaming for creators with over 10,000 subscribers. Creators and viewers now have "Super Chat" which pins a comment at the top of the live chat window for a longer time.
• Rollout Details: YouTube has supported live-streaming on its website from a PC for years. The feature announced last year at VidCon was only available to a few select creators until now. This rollout will bring the feature to "hundreds of thousands of creators." But there's a barrier for those with less than 10,000 subscribers. YouTube plans to roll out the feature to every user in the future.
• Super Chat's Monetary Value: Super Chat adds value to YouTube live-streams. It's a paid feature available on both PC and mobile. Viewers can pay to highlight their comment and pin it for up to five hours. They can pay as little as $1 to get a comment highlighted and up to $10 to get it at the top. The cost depends on comment length, highlight color, and time pinned. Viewers can spend up to $500.
• Revenue Sharing: YouTube takes 55 percent of ad revenue from creators. It hasn't shared how much Super Chat revenue it will take. The Super Chat support page says creators will receive it like ad revenue with AdSense. Other social media sites have similar systems like Twitch.
• Strategic Move: Super Chat provides an additional income source for YouTubers. Mobile live-streaming is a strategic move as most major social media sites allow it. YouTube wants to keep its top creators on its site and not on competitors'. Giving creators the ability to live-stream from anywhere may encourage them to do less on other apps. With the speculation about the algorithm favoring longer videos, live-streaming is another way to encourage more content.