YouTube tests Viewer Applause to help creators earn more

Viewer Applause by YouTube is an option that lets viewers support their favorite creators financially.

Presently, Viewer Applause that enables users to buy applause animation is only available on YouTube desktop for users in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and the USA.

Users can spend up to the equivalent of $500 USD per day, or $2000 USD per week Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Viewer applause combined. Viewer applause voluntary payments are non-refundable. You will receive a receipt via email as a record of your purchase.

How to buy Viewer Applause

• Start watching a video on youtube.com.

• Under the video, click Applaud.

• Click Applaud(In the popup, you’ll find how much applause costs in your country or region).

• To complete the purchase, follow the on-screen instructions.

Reportedly, YouTube takes a 30% cut from each purchase viewer makes and the rest goes to the creator. Viewer applause is the newest edition to the revenue streams created by YouTube such as Super Chat, Super Stickers, special memberships and more.

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Such revenue streams have previously aided creators too. Super Chat is a revenue stream on YouTube for nearly 20,000 channels.

Bhuvan Bam, one of the top creators in India has also tapped through a few of these revenue streams. He offered two variants of a special membership program: Heroes & Superheroes. These memberships would offer loyalty badges, custom emojis, collectibles, and more.

The eligibility criteria as to which creators can host the applause option is unclear as of now. Although, factors such as the number of followers, active membership in the YouTube Partner Program, and more of such factors can be presumed to be considerations.

The feature is limited to desktop and restricted to few countries, and its further roll-out would depend on the feature's early phase, but the feature would be beneficial for creators, given the success of the previously launched revenue streams.

Although, YouTube has previously been touted to only push features for the 'already popular' creators i.e. the ones having a higher number of following, one of the reasons why the up & coming creators don't feel supported by the platform.