YouTube will permit users to gift paid memberships to one another

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YouTube will enable both the viewers and creators to gift paid channel memberships. Many influencers tweeted the announcement, many of whom were excited about another monetization tool. Gifted subs have been a well known feature on Twitch — YouTube Gaming’s main rival — for some time. Many streamers consider memberships to be a simple method for producing income while also building their community. However, YouTube did not have this feature for a long time. YouTube Japan tried things out with gifted memberships recently for a select number of channels. Gifted memberships — which is still in beta — will  be accessible to all YouTube Gaming users n the US and UK.

Fans typically pay $4.99 each month for channel memberships, which permit them to access user badges, emotes, and other exclusive content. YouTube Gaming has provided many other Twitch-like features this year, for example, Live Redirects, which permit streamers to send viewers to different streams.

While Twitch stays the greatest US-based platform for live streaming, some of its high-profile streamers have moved on to YouTube Gaming and there might be more to follow. Bloomberg reported last month that Twitch partners will get a smaller cut of income from memberships (50% from 70%) under a new monetization model by Twitch. YouTube Gaming takes 30% of a streamer’s income from channel memberships. While YouTube Gaming doesn’t have as large of a group of viewers as Twitch, that could change if more well popular Twitch streamers leave.