Skip to main content

YouTube CEO notes need for transparency w/ creators, teases update & expansion for Stories

Last month, we opined how YouTube could save a lot of creator frustration by just being more transparent, especially in regards to A/B testing of new features. CEO Susan Wojcicki acknowledged that today in a post that also provides a “mid-year update” on what the video site is working on.

There are five key priorities for 2018 starting with “Transparency and Communication.” According to Wojcicki, YouTube has made a “conscious effort” to respond on social media, like Twitter, with 600% more tweets through official handles in 2018 than in 2017. Reach has also grown 30% in the past few months.

While this is true, with the recent spate of A/B tests acknowledged by YouTube, the issue and what creators want is an earlier heads up about any change — even minor ones — to the platform.

The site is also internationally rolling out a dashboard within YouTube Studio to better communicate relevant information. Launched in English, an additional 76 languages will receive the feature over the next two weeks.

The rest of the post rehashes announcements at Vidcon last month, including $4.99 Channel Memberships and merchandise on channels. She notes that Famebit will continue to help creators make more money with a new feature in the coming months that “will allow users to easily shop for products, apps or tickets directly from the creator watch page.”

Stories in YouTube are meant to compete with the corresponding Instagram and Snapchat functionality, and Wojcicki today noted “key improvements” are coming soon, while later this year it will be available for users with more than 10,000 subscribers.

The CEO also announced YouTube Learning to support education focussed creator content with grants.

We’re also expanding our learning content team efforts and have a newly dedicated product and engineering team working on building out features for learning on YouTube. Our hope is to support those who use YouTube to share their knowledge with the world and the millions of users who come to our platform to learn.


Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com