YouTube launches Hype feature to help small channels spread
YouTube announced a new feature called “ Hype ” during its recent media event, which aims to help small content creators expand their audience.
This feature allows existing viewers to boost the popularity of videos by pressing the “Hype” button, which helps the video rise in the “Most Exciting Videos” list, and gives it the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
This feature provides an alternative for content creators, eliminating the need to rely entirely on recommendation algorithms and search results to increase the number of views.
Viewers can tap a new “Hype” button below the “Like” button, and this feature will only be available to channel owners with fewer than 500,000 subscribers.
As the number of clicks on “Hype” increases, the video’s ranking rises in the top 100 videos, giving it a chance to spread.
To avoid abuse of the feature, YouTube has limited the number of times the “Hype” feature can be used to three times per week per user.
In the future, YouTube is expected to allow viewers to purchase additional “Hypes,” which will open up a new source of income for the platform. YouTube has not yet determined the percentage it will cut from these purchases, but for comparison, the platform takes a 30% share of profits from purchases made through the “Super Thanks” feature.
YouTube said that the more “Hype” clicks creators earn, the more points they will earn that will boost their weekly rankings in their countries. The platform will also offer an additional reward to channel owners with fewer subscribers, which will boost their chances of competing with larger channels.
YouTube has started testing the feature in Türkiye, Taiwan and Brazil, where the “Hype” feature has been used more than 5 million times on 50,000 channels.