YouTube launches 'Hype' feature to help small channels gain fame quickly

Every year, it is difficult for new bloggers to gain popularity on YouTube and stand out from competitors with millions of views and a large number of subscribers.

To help smaller channels get attention, YouTube is rolling out a new feature called Hype.

With the help of the "Hype" function, subscribers to channels with less than 500 thousand followers will be able to "promote" their favorite videos.

The system is implemented in this way: every week users can use three “Hype” - this will help the content creator to promote his video in the default rating and make it visible to a larger number of viewers.

For this to work, viewers tap a new “Hype” feature below the “Like” button on a video. The feature will be available on videos from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers. As more people promote the video, it will rank higher in the top 100 most promoted videos. To prevent fans from abusing the feature to boost their favorite creators, users will be limited to “promoting” it three times a week for now.

The company said it decided to create this feature because it saw that passionate fans wanted to be part of a creator's success story.

However, in the future, YouTube says it will allow fans to purchase additional “hypes,” opening up a new revenue stream for the video site. The company has not yet shared how much of a cut it will take from those purchases.

Additionally, YouTube is offering creators a small built-in bonus for channels with fewer subscribers, doubling points to put them on par with larger creators. The company notes that the most promoted video will also receive a special badge.

YouTube says that in the first four weeks of Hype beta testing in Turkey, Taiwan and Brazil, YouTube viewers promoted videos more than 5 million times across more than 50,000 channels. The largest age group involved in promoting videos in the beta was 18-24, which made up more than 30% of total beta users.