How does it work?

With its new feature called Hype, YouTube is trying to grow smaller channels and help people discover and share new content creators. Hype is a completely new promotion system on YouTube: Added a new video promotion button and the most popular videos will appear on the cross-platform leaderboard. It’s a bit like Trending, but specifically targeted at smaller channels. What exactly? People not only want to watch, they also want to recommend.

The company says that when a blogger reaches 500,000 followers, things change suddenly and dramatically. Bangali Kaba, YouTube’s director of product management, says the half-million mark is a turning point in terms of both growth and revenue.

Larger channels also tend to get more views, which leads to more referrals, which leads to more views, which leads to more revenue. And so on. So the company decided to give smaller channels a chance.

YouTube has been working on Hype since early 2023, when the company decided to focus on building communities on YouTube. Kaba says that by talking to users, the YouTube team figured out what viewers wanted to engage with the most.

Some studies have shown us that audiences want to influence the creative process. We’ve also heard feedback that they want to contribute to the conversation.
– Bangali Kaba says.

People also wanted cameo-style videos, asking and answering questions to the creators, etc.

But most importantly, fans wanted to be able to be more active in helping their favorite creators succeed. People get the opportunity to be the first to see something great and share it with the world. It makes you feel like you’re involved in what people are promoting. In the age of duets, remixes, and remixes, the audience is the creator and the creator is the audience. YouTube says giving everyone a chance to grow is key to the service. “We really wanted to allow fans to be members of the community to help support their favorite creators,” Kaba adds.

Regular YouTube viewers continued to say the same thing, saying, “They wanted to discover things they might not have otherwise discovered or that YouTube wouldn’t recommend.” Viewers want content, creators want growth, fans want to share. Hype is the middle ground.

A complex algorithm was built into it

The mechanism by which Hype works is quite complex. A video can only be promoted within the first seven days after its publication, and of course, if it was created by a channel with less than half a million subscribers.

• Each user can only click the Hype button three times a week.
• Each click is worth a certain number of points, depending on the number of subscribers for that channel. The 100 videos with the most points rise to the top of the leaderboard.

Leaderboards will be country-specific, and YouTube plans to personalize the Hype section for each user over time.

The best hundred will appear on the list / Photo YouTube

All of this will allow YouTube to get a lot of good data on what videos people are liking from smaller channels across the board. Hype won’t affect YouTube’s traditional algorithm, but Hype could see more filters and themed leaderboards in the Hype section soon, and promoted videos could start appearing in the traditional recommendation feed.

The point of all these nuances and complexities is to ensure that the leaderboard changes frequently and that people feel connected to everything they promote.

There’s a signal in this: This is something that really matters to people and that they really want to defend.
says Hype’s interaction designer Kristen Stewart.

This is also an attempt to prevent the system from being gamed and manipulated, because if you give people a leaderboard, they will try to hack it to get to the top. The limit on the number of “hype ads” means that each one is a much stronger positive signal than a mere like, and it’s no coincidence that there’s no “Disable Hype Warning” button.

Once you get a steady stream of likes to promote your content even more, you’ll start seeing a Hype button. When you click on the button, you’ll see how many points it earned and whether it’s on the leaderboard. At the end of each week, you’ll get a Spotify Wrapped-style review that lists the videos you liked and how they performed in the end. There are also badges that tell you you’ll be on the leaderboard for the first few people to like a video, or for those who liked five videos and liked them.

We’re thinking about how to celebrate the people who make the most impactful likes.
– says Stewart.

New Twitter button / YouTube photo

Benefits for content creators

For creators, Hype has it all: a way to connect with your biggest fans, offload some of the promotional work, and monetize your most loyal viewers. When you promote a video, the creator also gets a cash bonus as the video gets more views.

Both Kaba and Stewart mention the possibility of paid distribution, whereby users could receive more than three Hype clicks per week for a fee that would be shared with the creator.

By default it will always be free until your Hype runs out.
Additional clicks will cost $2, Stewart added.

It is not yet known when the feature will be available to everyone.