YouTube is looking into NFTs and doubling down on live shopping in 2022

Though it was scant on details, YouTube is following Twitter and Meta's lead by integrating NFTs.

1/25/2022

YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki published the company’s 2022 priorities letter Tuesday, giving some insight into what the company sees as its greatest accomplishments in the last year and its goals for the next. Most notable: YouTube will devote resources to some implementation of NFTs and live shopping, framing both as opportunities for creators to make money on the platform.

There are now 10 ways for creators to make money on YouTube, according to Wojcicki, and more to come. YouTube already experimented with live shopping in the fall of last year, first running pilots with selected creators and then, later, hosting a weeklong “YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop” in November. This year, the company plans to expand livestreamed shopping with creators as well as with known ecommerce companies like Shopify.

Wojcicki's letter was more vague in regards to NFTs: The technology will “strengthen and enhance the experience creators and fans have on YouTube,” it says, offering few additional details. This comes on the heels of Twitter integrating NFT profile pictures and a Financial Times report that says Facebook and Instagram are also rolling out programs through which creators can use NFTs.

YouTube also shared some viewership and user data. The company reached 5 trillion all-time views on Shorts, YouTube’s TikTok-like short-video format, with 40% more channels making at least $10,000 a year than the year previous. YouTube channel memberships and paid digital goods, two ways creators can directly charge their fans through the platform, were purchased or renewed more than 110 million times. And in the past year, Music and Premium subscribers reached 50 million.

On regulation, the CEO offered a few predictable comments: Europe’s Digital Services Act, while well-intentioned, raises some concerns about free speech, she said. She also thanked the European Parliament for making Article 17, the union’s copyright directive, “workable.”

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