YouTube Moves Into Live Streaming

YouTube recently launched a new tool called 'Super Chat', which is designed to help creators on the site monetize live streams through user comments. The basic idea is that users who pay to post during live streams will have their comments highlighted and pushed to the top of creators' feeds (which in theory should increase the chance that they are seen and responded to). No doubt this new feature was in part inspired by Facebook's recent and aggressive push into live-streaming, and the continually increasing popularity of the content form in general. It also just makes sense for YouTube to help monetize live streams for their native content creators, who they are hugely dependent on. According to Hypebot, "For a personality driven ecosystem such as the YouTube creator landscape, additional engagement opportunities for both creators and fans have significant potential."