By: Maritza Vega | @maritzavegaPR

Live streaming has recently been a popular concept that many platforms are slowly starting to make available. With Facebook Live, Twitch, and Instagram Live incorporating live streaming concepts onto their platform, it’s no surprise that YouTube is launching a competitive feature amongst its counterparts within their own live streaming option. Recently, the popular video sharing website has added a feature called “Super Chat” that will help creators monetize live streaming and keep engagement amongst consumers.

The way Super Chat operates is through voluntary donations. Users have the ability to donate money and as a result get their message pinned and highlighted in a bright color for both the individual who is running the livestream and other users to see. For up to five hours, the message is pinned at the top of the chat stream during the live stream. Character limit and duration do vary depending on how much the user decides to donate.

With the Super Chat feature, YouTube creators now have a new way to earn money through live streaming. Although YouTube still offers Fan Funding (the ability for users to donate payments to support their favorite YouTube creators), they will be ending the tool and pushing Super Chat forward. For YouTube creators this will open up a channel for them to earn revenue other than just earning through advertising and brand endorsements.

While Super Chat is still in beta, the feature appears promising so far. With YouTube only allowing the feature available to top creators, many have received promising revenue from livestreaming their content. Typical Gamer, a YouTube creator, successfully earned $4,000 all through Super Chat while livestreaming a Grand Theft Auto broadcast. Another YouTube creator, Clintus.tv, made about $900 all while livestreaming his trip at Target for nearly half-hour.

The new YouTube feature will hopefully attract creators to use the video sharing website as their primary way to livestream their content. With competitive social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch all providing their own livestreaming features to attract creators, YouTube is hoping to stand out and attract users to go live. As live streaming becomes a key component to a business model, competition among the platforms increases to see who can offer an easy to use and engaging feature.

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