YouTube announced earlier (November 10th) the official launch of its new fan sponsorship features, "Jewels" and "Gifts," in the Taiwan market. Following its initial launch in the United States last year, Taiwan becomes the second market globally to offer these features. This will allow viewers to express their support with more interactive animations while watching Vertical Live Streams, while also providing creators with new monetization opportunities.
Targeting Taiwan's fan economy, 24 localized gift designs were introduced.
YouTube stated that it chose Taiwan as its second market because it observed that Taiwan's thriving "fan culture" is continuously driving the creator economy.
According to internal YouTube data, in December 2024, more than 5500 channels in Taiwan earned revenue through fan donation features (including channel memberships, super comments, super stickers, and super thanks), representing a year-on-year increase of 15%; while the number of channels whose main source of revenue was fan donations saw an even greater year-on-year increase of over 20%.
To resonate with local culture, YouTube has specially designed 24 exclusive localized "gifts" for the Taiwan market, including iconic items like "bubble tea," "beef noodles," and "pineapple cakes," as well as popular online items such as "capybara cheers" and "heart gestures." These localized gifts will be offered alongside 26 globally synchronized gifts, including "corgis" and "mystery gifts."
Operating Mechanism: Purchase "gems" to exchange for "gifts," and creators receive "ruby" rewards.
In terms of its operational mechanism, this system is divided into three types of virtual goods:
• Jewels:
Digital merchandise (bundles) purchased by "viewers". The design allows viewers to purchase a sufficient amount at once, eliminating the need to repeat the purchase process during the interaction, thereby simplifying the process of instant sponsorship.
• Gifts:
Viewers use "gems" to exchange for and send vivid animated effects. These animations will be displayed at the top of the live stream screen to enhance interactivity.
• Rubies:
When a "creator" receives a gift, their earnings will accumulate in the form of "rubies".
According to the official statement, one "ruby" is equivalent to US$0.01 (approximately NT$0.32), and the final payment will be calculated based on the average exchange rate between the US dollar and the New Taiwan dollar for the current month.
Activation method: Lock "Live Streaming", which will replace "Super Texture".
In terms of activation, eligible creators (YPP members) can go to the "Monetization" section of YouTube Studios, accept the new "Virtual Goods Unit Terms," and then enable the "Gifts" feature for their channel.
Once enabled, this feature will automatically apply to all of the creator's live streams (viewers will need to purchase and stream through the YouTube mobile app).
It is worth noting that YouTube specifically mentioned a key change: when creators enable the "gift" feature in a live stream, the original "Super Stickers" feature will no longer be available for live streams (but will still be available for regular landscape streams). This move is clearly to unify the sponsorship features of live streams into the new "gift" system.
YouTube says it looks forward to seeing how creators and fans take the live streaming experience to a new level through "gems" and "gifts".
