YouTube just launched Hype to help small creators get discovered. Here’s a
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This new feature from YouTube gives small, lesser-known creators a chance to be discovered by new viewers. Here's how it works.
YouTube just announced a new feature designed to help smaller creators drive more traffic to their videos. It's called Hype.
Founders and YouTubers are excitedly talking about how much easier this makes it to grow a small YouTube channel into a big one.
I'll explain how below.
What is Hype, exactly?
Hype is a new kind of action you can take to engage videos on YouTube. Just as viewers can "like" and "share" videos, they can also now "hype" them.
When a viewer clicks to hype a video, the video will be added to a new leaderboard that displays the top 100 hyped videos for that week.
Each country will have its own Hype leaderboard, and the more hypes a video gets, the higher it'll climb.
Hypes can only be given to recent videos (under seven days old), and viewers have to be subscribed to a creator in order to hype their videos.
Oh, you can only give out three hypes a week. For now.
YouTube says it'll eventually allow fans to purchase additional weekly hypes once they run out.
How does this help smaller YouTubers?
The new Hype feature is designed to be a game-changer for video creators who don't have much of a following yet. Here's how:
500k eligibility limit: Viewers can only hype videos from creators who have fewer than 500,000 subscribers.
This means the Hype feature won't appear under the videos of huge YouTube influencers like MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI.
Small creator bonus: YouTube is also adding an additional "small creator bonus" to give smaller channels an even bigger leg up.
It works like this: each time a subscriber hypes a video, the video receives hype points. But the smaller the creator of the video is, the more hype points they'll receive.
All of this means that creators at the lower end of the subscriber spectrum will have a real chance to get more views.
Why does YouTube care?
There are many reasons to release a feature like this. But according to a director of product management at YouTube, it's because they simply want to even the playing field:
“We just saw a disproportionate growth in earnings, even though most of our creators are smaller than [500,000 subscribers].” —Bangaly Kaba
But people around the web are pretty cynical.
The consensus on most of the subreddits I looked at seems to be that this is just a new pay-to-win scheme that will soon line YouTube's pockets with an additional revenue stream. It's obvious that people will spend lots of money to buy additional hypes.
Obviously YouTube wants to make more money, but my read is that Hype is part of a much larger strategy to make "community" a central part of the YouTube experience.
After all, in addition to Hype, YouTube also announced a new "Communities" feature, which they describe as "a new space that creators can enable on their channel page to foster deeper relationships with their audiences."
Sam Gutelle from Tubefilter explains it this way:
“The introduction of growth-oriented features like Hype is part of YouTube’s broader plan to turn channel pages into fan hubs. These Communities, as YouTube will call them, will feature fan art, video discussions, and more.”
YouTube channel pages are getting a makeover, and Hype is only one small part of that.
What else did YouTube announce?
In total, YouTube announced nine new features at their Made on YouTube event yesterday.
In addition to Hype and Communities, these included "Jewels" (a new kind of in-app currency for one-time gifts) and a Community Hub: a feature in the YouTube Studio app that replaces the comment section with a feed of all the activity on the creator's channel.
You can read about the other new YouTube features in their official announcement blog post.
This seems like a win/win/win for everyone, aside from the big creators who may lose some viewership as a result.
Yeah, I wonder where they'll show the Hype leaderboard? Presumably somewhere that videos from bigger creators used to be more likely to appear.
Looks like YouTube is trying to become more of a social network, and turn channel pages into community hubs where subscribers can interact with creators and facilitate micropayments, similar to Twitch. X is also trying to do this with their paid subscription features.
Maybe it's time to bring Indie Hackers to YouTube. Who would watch? What videos would you want to see?
I like the StarterStory-like types of videos, where they feature a founder, talk to them, etc.
But you're already there...?
when will this feature be released?
Supposedly it's out now? But I can't personally get the Hype button to show on videos that should be eligible. Could be that YouTube is waiting until the beginning of the calendar week in each country to activate the feature since it's all based on weekly leaderboards.
I wonder if the creators get some share of the paid hypes and if so what percentage. If creators also get something from that, it could be interesting mechanic. If Youtube just keeps all the Hype money it seems just another way for them to try get revenue as they could just tweak the recommendation algorithm to give more value to good likes/subs ratio if they cared about boosting the smaller creators.
I highly highly doubt it. The "win" for creators is to accrue points for leaderboard rankings. If they could also earn literal money for hypes it would probably distort the overall incentives and introduce a dynamic where a lot of YouTubers attempted to game the system.
this seems like a big chance for us
Yup, finally a nice change that will help the people that need it the most and not always the most popular youtubers
This is so great for my recent side hustle! Great! Lets understand and try on!
Thanks for sharing. That’s really good news
I think YouTube is one of the best social networks.
I switched to Vimeo when I realized Youtube despised small creators. I don't expect these new measure to make much changes. As much as I don't like the content of the app, tiktok has an excellent discoverability algorithm and Youtube could take a page out of it. But i'll always favor corporations and big names.
his is exactly what small creators need! It's always been tough to get noticed with so much content on YouTube. Hype sounds like a great tool to level the playing field. I’m excited to see how it works and whether it helps more people grow their channels. Definitely going to check it out!
Now this a feature that is very useful! Love to see it in action
This Hype feature sounds like a game-changer for small YouTubers! It's great to see YouTube giving smaller creators a fair shot at growth, especially with the 500k subscriber cap and the small creator bonus. While there’s some skepticism about it being a pay-to-win scheme, I think it really depends on how creators and viewers use the feature. The addition of Hype points based on the creator’s size could really help level the playing field. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves, especially as YouTube continues to emphasize community building. For anyone looking to explore tech-related content, feel free to check out my site where I share tips and updates on mobile apps and mods.
Ja, darüber habe ich auch schon gelesen und finde es sehr spannend, dass Menschen, die bisher noch nicht viele Möglichkeiten oder Chancen hatten, durch diesen Hype endlich eine echte Chance bekommen. Ich bin dir sehr dankbar, dass du darüber berichtest, und hoffe, dass diese Entwicklungen auch bald nach Österreich durchdringen und dort anwendbar werden.
Liebe Grüße,
Cornelia
Great post. Initially, I like the concept. But I have two worries: First the paid hype, which companies could just spend tons to hype bad content. Second, bots. A problem which I'm not sure YT has solved yet.
Yeah, I am also quite suspicious about this.
This is nice
This approach provides smaller YouTubers with greater visibility and access to valuable resources that can enhance their content. By fostering a supportive community, they can collaborate and share tips, helping each other grow.