YouTube announced a new feature today aimed at helping creators make money while connecting with their fans during a live stream: Super Chat. The addition is reminiscent of streaming site Twitch’s Cheering feature, which allow viewers to pay real money in order to have their messages stand out in the chat stream through the use of emotes (animated icons.) In YouTube’s case, fans instead are able to highlight their message in a bright color, and have their comment pinned on the stream.
Though the implementation is different from Twitch’s, the goal is the same: it’s a means of allowing fans to pay real money in exchange for attention. (It’s also not all that different from technologies porn cam sites have used in their own chat systems for years, which typically involve the purchase of tokens.)
As YouTube explains in its blog post announcing the new feature, Super Chats will remain pinned to the top of the chat for up to five hours, which gives the message a lot of airtime.
