YouTube Testing Gifting Memberships

While Amazon-owned Twitch has struggled as a result of recent controversial platform changes, YouTube has benefited from the upheaval. YouTube stated this week that it is testing Membership Gifting, a feature similar to that offered by Twitch.

Membership Gifting, as described in a community post, is now available on YouTube, but only in a limited capacity. YouTube explains that the tool will be available to a “small group” of creators at first, with the feature gradually extending over the next months. YouTube creators can express their interest in the feature by filling out a form. What is YouTube Membership Gifting? On a livestream, channel members can buy up to 20 “gift” subscriptions for other viewers, and the recipients get one month of access to loyalty badges, personalized emoji, and other channel membership privileges. Gifts are given away for free to people who receive them, and creators are compensated in the same way that they would be with a typical channel subscription. 

Membership Gifting is currently only accessible for YouTube users on the desktop website experience, and users must opt in to be eligible for gifts. YouTube gives gift subscriptions based on the number of loyal and active users. Existing channel members are also unable to accept a gift. 

Twitch’s Gift Subscriptions provide a comparable service. These might be delivered to specific viewers or to 100 viewers at random.