With competitors like Twitch growing every day, YouTube creators are starting to carve new homes on platforms that feel more reliable.

However, according to a Bloomberg report, YouTube is trying to keep their creators on their website by offering wads of cash to promote monetisation and other features.

One of the ways the video streaming site is promoting these tools is paying some of their biggest users (who are not named) to talk about and promote the features. Supposedly, some creators are being tricked into agreements that require their content to appear on YouTube first before any other sites.

Sweetening the deal

The Bloomberg report says that YouTube rolled out paid memberships and chats along with a new merchandising program earlier this year to “placate top talent and keep up with major competitors".

Many people with large followings on the video site have complained that it doesn’t offer ways to make money beyond advertising and that YouTube’s efforts to shield advertisers from controversial content has "hurt their sales".

Youtube has said that at the moment, they are not doing anything to change the way they are paying their creators. However, they have also said they’re trying to find more ways to compensate creators beyond advertising revenue.

These include the paid subscriptions and easier merch selling, as well as the Super Chat feature, which allows users to pay the creator directly to have their comment highlighted during a live stream.

Bloomberg notes that these features “offer higher profit margins to YouTube and its parent company Alphabet Inc., which has been looking to make money from sources beyond advertising".