YouTube launches channel membership gifting, allows users to gift monthly membership to others

Google-owned YouTube on Wednesday rolled out a Beta version of 'Channel Memberships Gifting' to a small group of creators to help them earn more money.

The gift memberships use the same 70/30 (Creator/YouTube) revenue split where revenue share is calculated after App Store fees on iOS (if applicable) and other charges like sales tax.

Viewers who receive a gift membership will get 1 month of access to channel membership perks like loyalty badges, custom emoji and more.

"Over the next several months, we'll be actively expanding the feature to even more creators," YouTube said in a statement.

With 'Memberships Gifting', channel members can buy a set number of channel memberships (5, 10, 20) in a single purchase, that YouTube will "gift" out to other viewers in your live stream.

"Viewers who receive gift memberships do not pay any charges and as the creator, you receive your usual revenue share from each transaction," said the company.

At the moment, purchasing gift memberships on mobile is not available during the Beta.

Existing channel members click the $ button next to the live chat to purchase gift memberships on live streams.

"Memberships Gifting is only available for viewers to purchase on desktop live streams. We're working on bringing this to mobile soon," said YouTube.

During the Beta, the only way to opt-in is to click 'Allow Gifts' on a gift membership announcement that shows in the live chat when someone has purchased gift memberships.

The YouTube feature is like Twitch's subscriptions where users have been able to buy gift subscriptions for some time.

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