YouTube is launching a gifting feature for its vertical livestreams that allows users to purchase digital “Jewels” for streamers to show their support and make connections. The gifts will appear as an overlay on livestream videos, “enhancing the live experience and creating a new way for you and your viewers to interact and have fun,” according to Google.
Jewels can be purchased in bundles that can then be dished out to eligible creators during their vertical live streams. Creators, in turn, receive Rubies for each gift, which are worth 1 cent each. YouTube will be rolling out the Jewels feature to eligible creators in the US over the next few weeks. Currently only US creators and users are eligible to purchase and receive Jewels.
To help launch Jewels & gifts, YouTube is offering limited-time 50% bonus to creators on gift earnings (up to $1,000 per month).
Does this all sound familiar?
TikTok's LIVE Gifts feature, which launched alongside the platforms' livestreaming capabilities in 2019, operates similarly, letting users purchase “coins” that can be used to buy virtual gifts of monetary value for livestreaming creators. Creators on TikTok who receive the gifts can also earn “diamonds,” which the company rewards based on the popularity of the livestream. Creators can redeem these diamonds for money or virtual items.
It appears that YouTube is trying to make an easy transition for TikTok Creators to jump ship to its platform in the event of a TikTok ban next year.