This year YouTube Creators have been hit hard by changes to the YouTube Partner Program, and some favorite features were retired. But there were some nice updates as well, and there are exciting updates in store for 2018.
My top YouTube Creator updates for 2017:
- New YouTube Partner Program application process, requiring 10,000 lifetime views, followed by a channel review
- The Adpocalypse and expanded enforcement of the advertiser-friendly guidelines for monetization
- Crackdown on hateful, violent, extremist content, and disturbing content aimed at kids
- Mobile live streaming available to (almost) all channels
- New ways for live streamers to earn: Super Chat and Sponsorship
State of the ‘Tube: Billions and billions
- YouTube updated their logo and icon, designed to look good whether viewed on a tiny screen or a giant one. Important, since more than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
- 1.5 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month, and viewers watch over a billion hours of content every day.
- There are more than 1 billion automatically captioned videos, with the quality improving all the time.
New: YouTube TV and YouTube Go
YouTube is trying to expand into new markets and attracting new users.
This year YouTube launched YouTube TV, which went live in April. The service brings live network and cable TV to folks in most US markets, with neat features like unlimited DVR storage to record your favorite shows.
On the other side of the world, YouTube Go launched in India in February. It’s designed to be fast and accessible, improve the video watching experience on slower networks, and give users greater control over data usage. The app is now available in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam,the Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
And YouTube Kids got a major update, introducing kid profiles and new parental controls for families around the world.
These updates are for viewers, though, not Creators. Read on Creators!
In 2017 YouTube retired the Flash-based video editor, and continued the move to mobile-friendly Cards in place of Annotations.
RIP: Annotations, YouTube Editor, In-video Featured Videos, Paid Channels
- May 2: Annotations retired, YouTube recommends using Cards and End Screens
- September 20: YouTube video editor and Photo slideshows retired. “Enhancements”, video trimming and face blurring are all still available.
- December 14: In-video featured playlists & videos retired, YouTube recommends Cards and End Screens
- January 1, 2018: Paid content is discontinued. Paid channels originally launched in 2013, and will hopefully be replaced by new monetization options, such as Sponsorships
YouTube Partner Program has tougher eligibility requirements
When the YouTube Partner Program launched back in 2007, it was invite only, for the “most popular creators”. Eventually you could apply to the program, but there were tough content and view requirements. By the end or 2010 there were 15,000 Partners, and YouTube gradually expanded the program, eventually even allowing monetization of individual popular videos on channels outside the Partner Program.
All of that changed in April 2012, when the YouTube Partner Program was opened to pretty much everyone. As the program expanded, more and more channels started churning out videos with questionable content (which - lets face it - is often very popular). That has culminated in what has been termed the “adpocalypse”, which I discuss below. And YouTube was already in the process of making changes before the advertisers struck back.
In April 2017 - almost exactly five years after the YouTube Partner Program opened up to most Creators - new new eligibility requirements were added. Now users must have at least 10,000 views on their channel, and content is reviewed before monetization is enabled.
Some Creators have found this to be a bit painful. Small channels that had previously monetized videos, have had their videos demonetized, at least until their channel reachedsthe view requirement. And the review process that ideally takes less than a week,is currently taking several weeks and sometimes longer than a month.
Even if you aren’t interested in putting ads on your videos, this should matter to you, as there are now a number of features only available to channels in the YouTube Partner Program.
Partner-only features include:
But the mainstream media and advertisers were seemingly taken aback that not only was this content on YouTube, but some of it was monetized. Advertisers understandably didn’t want to have their ads associated with such content and started pulling millions of dollars of ad buys. And YouTube and Google had to respond.
This started in earnest back in February, when the Wall Street Journal reported that popular YouTuber PewDiePie was monetizing videos with anti-Jewish jokes and Nazi imagery. The media started taking a closer look at other videos, and discovered that advertisers were “helping fund” violent extremists and hate organizations .
As more advertisers cancelled their ads, YouTube responded with a promise of a tougher stance on hateful content, and better controls for advertisers. And as they were developing those advertiser controls, few ads displayed on any videos. This was the beginning of the “adpocalypse”.
Ads gradually were restored. However, many Creators discovered that some - or in some cases all - of their videos had been flagged as “not suitable for most advertisers”.
And the months that followed, YouTube’s monetization policies became even stricter, and stricter, with action taken against extremist and terrorist content, and then - after more media reports exposing the problem - against disturbing or otherwise inappropriate content aimed at kids.
Many many Creators have become frustrated by the automated flagging of their seemingly innocuous content.
But I think the situation is improving. There is an option to submit “non-advertiser friendly” videos for review (although there is a minimum view or subscriber requirement). And YouTube is working to improve the accuracy of their automated algorithms. So things are getting better, at least compared to the situation six months ago.
All of that changed in April 2012, when the YouTube Partner Program was opened to pretty much everyone. As the program expanded, more and more channels started churning out videos with questionable content (which - lets face it - is often very popular). That has culminated in what has been termed the “adpocalypse”, which I discuss below. And YouTube was already in the process of making changes before the advertisers struck back.
In April 2017 - almost exactly five years after the YouTube Partner Program opened up to most Creators - new new eligibility requirements were added. Now users must have at least 10,000 views on their channel, and content is reviewed before monetization is enabled.
Some Creators have found this to be a bit painful. Small channels that had previously monetized videos, have had their videos demonetized, at least until their channel reachedsthe view requirement. And the review process that ideally takes less than a week,is currently taking several weeks and sometimes longer than a month.
Even if you aren’t interested in putting ads on your videos, this should matter to you, as there are now a number of features only available to channels in the YouTube Partner Program.
Partner-only features include:
- Direct support from the YouTube Creator Support Team
- Adding links to your associated websites or merchandise and crowdfunding sites in your video’s Cards
- Embedding live stream videos on your own website
- Tutorial: How to enable monetization on your YouTube channel
- Introducing Expanded YouTube Partner Program Safeguards to Protect Creators
- Update to the YouTube Partner Program application process
- Update on the YouTube Partner Program review process
The Adpocalypse
With over a billion users I don’t think it’s particularly surprising to learn that there is a lot of offensive, hateful, disturbing, spammy, and even illegal content on YouTube.
But the mainstream media and advertisers were seemingly taken aback that not only was this content on YouTube, but some of it was monetized. Advertisers understandably didn’t want to have their ads associated with such content and started pulling millions of dollars of ad buys. And YouTube and Google had to respond.
This started in earnest back in February, when the Wall Street Journal reported that popular YouTuber PewDiePie was monetizing videos with anti-Jewish jokes and Nazi imagery. The media started taking a closer look at other videos, and discovered that advertisers were “helping fund” violent extremists and hate organizations .
As more advertisers cancelled their ads, YouTube responded with a promise of a tougher stance on hateful content, and better controls for advertisers. And as they were developing those advertiser controls, few ads displayed on any videos. This was the beginning of the “adpocalypse”.
Ads gradually were restored. However, many Creators discovered that some - or in some cases all - of their videos had been flagged as “not suitable for most advertisers”.
And the months that followed, YouTube’s monetization policies became even stricter, and stricter, with action taken against extremist and terrorist content, and then - after more media reports exposing the problem - against disturbing or otherwise inappropriate content aimed at kids.
Many many Creators have become frustrated by the automated flagging of their seemingly innocuous content.
But I think the situation is improving. There is an option to submit “non-advertiser friendly” videos for review (although there is a minimum view or subscriber requirement). And YouTube is working to improve the accuracy of their automated algorithms. So things are getting better, at least compared to the situation six months ago.
Crackdown on violent, extremist and disturbing content
YouTube has not only demonetized videos with potentially hateful, violent, disturbing or otherwise advertiser-unfriendly content. It also has removed or made less visible hundreds of thousands of videos.
Some of those changes include:
Overall, I think these are good changes. It’s just unfortunate that YouTube took so long to deal with the problematic content which fed off of YouTube’s algorithms, letting the problem fester until something had to be done.
And from what I've observed, it’s not an easy problem to solve. Earlier this year, many LGBTQ videos were not available in “Restricted Mode”, which is meant to filter “mature” content. YouTube have improved their policies and systems to make sure that “non-graphic, personal accounts of difficult events” are not blocked. But that appears to have required significant investment in human review.
YouTube is building on that. In early December they announced that their goal is to have more than 10,000 “people across Google working to address content that might violate [their] policies”, which sounds like a significant commitment.
And YouTube continues to update its algorithms that look for content that violates policy or isn’t advertiser-friendly.
Hopefully in 2018 YouTube will be fewer crises and more focus on helping and promoting Creators who create quality family safe content.
Read more about updates to YouTube’s monetization and content policies
YouTube has been steadily improving live streaming features both for gamers and non-gaming live streamers. Mega live events like the long wait for April the giraffe to give birth are rare. But even small channels can live stream, either while playing your favorite game or vlogging from your phone
Some of those changes include:
- Faster removal of videos with terrorism-related content and child endangerment, using both machine learning and human Trusted Flaggers
- Videos that have inflammatory religious or supremacist content, but that don’t meet the criteria for removal, are placed behind a warning interstitial screen. That prevents the videos from being recommended, having comments, or being monetized.
- Using the “Redirect Method” to direct people who search for certain terrorist-related keywords to a playlist of videos debunking violent extremist recruiting narratives
- Turning off comments on videos featuring minors, when there are inappropriate sexual or predatory comments.
Overall, I think these are good changes. It’s just unfortunate that YouTube took so long to deal with the problematic content which fed off of YouTube’s algorithms, letting the problem fester until something had to be done.
And from what I've observed, it’s not an easy problem to solve. Earlier this year, many LGBTQ videos were not available in “Restricted Mode”, which is meant to filter “mature” content. YouTube have improved their policies and systems to make sure that “non-graphic, personal accounts of difficult events” are not blocked. But that appears to have required significant investment in human review.
YouTube is building on that. In early December they announced that their goal is to have more than 10,000 “people across Google working to address content that might violate [their] policies”, which sounds like a significant commitment.
And YouTube continues to update its algorithms that look for content that violates policy or isn’t advertiser-friendly.
Hopefully in 2018 YouTube will be fewer crises and more focus on helping and promoting Creators who create quality family safe content.
Read more about updates to YouTube’s monetization and content policies
- February: Anti-Semitic jokes cause YouTube, Disney to distance themselves from PewDiePie (Washington Post)
- February: Big Brands fund terror through online adverts (The Times)
- March: Google's bad week: YouTube loses millions as advertising row reaches US (The Guardian)
- March: Strengthening YouTube for advertisers and creators
- March: Advertisers and Creator Revenue
- March Restricted Mode: How it works and what we can do better
- April: Introducing our first class of Creators for Change fellows
- April An update on Restricted Mode
- June: Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube Announce Formation of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
- June: Your Content and Making Money from Advertising on YouTube
- June: Four steps we’re taking today to fight terrorism online
- June A Message on Pride and LGBTQ Initiatives
- July: Bringing new Redirect Method features to YouTube
- August: An update to our commitment to fight terror online
- August: Expanding the ability to appeal more videos
- August: The importance of requesting review for Gaming videos
- September: Update on monetization appeal and the appeals process
- October: An update on our commitment to fight violent extremist content online
- October: Improving the technology behind our monetization icons - improved algorithms, fewer misclassifications
- October: Yellow monetization icons - more info and resources!
- November: Something is wrong on the internet (James Bridle)
- November: YouTube kills ads on 50,000 channels as advertisers flee over disturbing child content (Vice)
- November: 5 ways we’re toughening our approach to protect families on YouTube and YouTube Kids (forum post)
- December: YouTubers Made Hundreds Of Thousands Off Of Bizarre And Disturbing Child Content (Charlie Warzle, Buzzfeed)
- December: Expanding our work against abuse of our platform
- December: Protecting Our Community
Live Streaming and YouTube Gaming
YouTube has been steadily improving live streaming features both for gamers and non-gaming live streamers. Mega live events like the long wait for April the giraffe to give birth are rare. But even small channels can live stream, either while playing your favorite game or vlogging from your phone
- Mobile live streaming is now available to all users with a verified channel with no live stream restrictions in the past 90 days.
- There are now two new ways to earn a bit of money: Super Chats let your fans purchase a live chat post during your broadcast, and Sponsorships let your fans support you with monthly recurring payments, in exchange for perks like custom emoji
- Ultra low latency streams let you interact with your fans in near real time
- Live stream events are now easier to manage on YouTube. You can copy settings from previous events, auto-start and there is automatic resolution detection.
More Creator Updates
Changes to monetization and live streaming aren't the only updates in 2017. Here is an overview of the other Creator updates this past year.
General
- January: Trending Tab now features “On the Rise” creators
- February: YouTube now offers the option to fix videos with unrelated or misleading video tags, rather than just removing the video.
- March: Use Community Contributions to translate your video’s titles and descriptions in addition to your captions.
- April:Remove your YouTube Custom URL and be offered a new one (if your channel is eligible)
- August: First introduced as an invite-only feature in May 2016, mobile sharing rolled out to everyone
- October: A new YouTube Creators Site
- June: Pin a comment on your video watch page
- July: Easier way to block comments with links from your videos
- January: Custom Thumbnails for the Creator Studio App
- June: Hot and Cold: Heatmaps in VR
- August: New categories and more detailed data in the YouTube Analytics Subscriber report |
Looking forward to 2018
What’s in store for 2018 on YouTube? Here are some features that were announced or in beta in 2017 that we're sure to see more of next year.
- In May YouTube offered a sneak peek at a new design. If you want to see it for yourself, you can opt in and provide feedback. Check out the New Desktop Design FAQs if you need help finding your way around. In 2018 it’s likely the old design will be retired
- In June YouTube offered a sneak peek at the new YouTube Studio Beta. It’s still early days, but you want to test it out, you can sign up here.
- YouTube is also working on improvements to the YouTube Studio mobile app.
- In 2017 Sponsorships were made available to all YouTube gaming creators, and YouTube plans to launch more broadly in 2018.
- YouTube also announced they are developing comment topics, which give viewers a way to browse comments according to the topics being discussed
- The channel Community tab was announced in September 2016, but was limited to only a handful of channels until November. At that time it was rolled out to all channels with at least 10,000 subscribers. In 2018 I expect it to finally be available to everyone else.
- There is currently a limited beta of the YouTube Gaming Lounge, which lets you watch videos live with your fans on your channel.
- In December YouTube announced a new feature, Reels, their take on “Stories” . it’s only available to a few Creators at the moment, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more.
My Top YouTube Tutorials
- How to enable monetization on YouTube
- How to block someone on your YouTube channel
- Create a YouTube Channel for your Brand, Business, Organization or Band
- Create a YouTube Subscribe button for your Website or Blog
More 2017 Updates
Year in Review 2017: Google+ Comes Into Its OwnYear in RevieSow 2017: Google and Your Photos
Year in Review 2017: Hangouts gets down to business
Great post. I think YouTube is really good platform by any means, but their support team lack the ability of responding for content-creators. I emailed their for attaining the Community Tab and I didn't head from them till now. Although your post is really good but I am completely dissatisfied with support team.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why support would not have responded to you after more than 48 hours, if your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program. Be sure to check your email account's spam or junk mail folder.
DeleteAtleast you could help me to get the Community tab. Channels with least sub count than me got the tab, but still not for me.
DeleteThe Community tab is still rolling out to channels with at least 10,000 subscribers. Your channel will get it eventually.
DeleteThanks for your concern. Finally, I contacted the YouTube support team and I got my Community Tab on my channel, see here:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/SabithPkcMnr/community