How YouTube’s ‘Hype’ is Empowering Smaller Creators

YouTube has launched a new feature called ‘Hype’ for smaller creators to promote their work without being sidelined by bigger brands. A hype button below a video can be used, and the most trending videos will appear on a separate platform inside YouTube on a leaderboard.  

The process is pretty straightforward. Only the channel with less than half a million subscribers is eligible for Hype. When a new video is uploaded on YouTube, it gets seven days to be hyped from the publish date. 

In YouTube Hype, if a user likes the video, the hype button gets highlighted. Each user gets only three hypes a week and specific points according to the content and viewership. The 100 selected videos with the highest points will be on top of the leaderboard. 

Things that impact the points are the content, location, and duration. It won’t affect the traditional YouTube algorithm but will bring smaller creators to the limelight. YouTube plans to provide more personalization options to creators, such as filters with topic-specific leaderboards, and a separate section in the recommendations feed. 

The Hype feature is part of YouTube’s initiative to build a healthy competition and an inclusive community. Several factors inspired Bangaly Kaba, director of product management at YouTube, to work on this feature. He said in an interview, “Some of the research told us that viewers want to influence the creative process”. 

It means that besides watching and learning new content, viewers wanted to know more about the art and the artist. YouTube’s Hype feature is about empowering smaller creators to rise above the competition and showcase their creativity.