YouTube Creator Blog: March 2018

Creator Blog

YouTube Space Dubai: A new home for creators in the Middle East and North Africa

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Creators are the heartbeat of YouTube. They make it the platform where more than one billion people around the world come to laugh, learn, and think. Over the past few years we watched as Arabic content on YouTube evolved to span hundreds of channels followed by millions of people. This transformation was spearheaded by a diverse and growing community made up of creators from almost every corner in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Today, I am proud to announce that this community now has a new home in the YouTube Space at Dubai Studio City, a facility dedicated to them and all their production needs.

Lowi Sahi, Maha Jaafar, Noor Naem, and Omar Farouq during a panel moderated by Head of YouTube Partnerships in MENA Diana Baddar

One of the things we’re proudest of at YouTube is that this is a platform where experiments are born. Some fail to take off, and some move on to position themselves to be part of popular culture such Saudi wives making hilarious sketches about everyday life or powerful social experiments that tell important stories. This appetite to experiment with new formats of storytelling and narratives is something we want to support, and the Space is our way of celebrating this creativity.

The Spaces program is designed to have something to offer all creators. Channels just starting out on YouTube with more than 1,000 subscribers will be welcome to sit in on workshops and events we will be holding at the Space. Creators that passed the 10,000 subscriber mark will be able to book the Space’s studios and production equipment.

The common area at YouTube Space Dubai

YouTube Space Dubai is the 10th Space in the world after London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, Mumbai, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, and Sao Paulo. Since the first Space opened in 2012, we’ve had more than 400,000 people visit us to attend events, workshops, or to make their videos.

The Space comes at an important time for the Arab world as it experiences an increase in the number of channels uploading from MENA countries by 160% in the past three years. Today, there are over 30,000 channels with more than 10,000 subscribers.

Another big indicator of how far we’ve come is the fact that there are now more than 200 channels in MENA that crossed the million subscriber mark, with 1 in every 4 creator channel being female-led. Five years ago, MENA had less than five million-subscriber channels, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.

Over the next couple of months, slots will be limited while we work with creators to study the needs of the local community to best provide the programmes and tools and ensure we provide the best support we can to our visitors. Creators will be able to book their production slots by early June.

To all the creators out there, start thinking of what your next video is going to be about. You might just shoot it at the YouTube Space at Dubai Studio City where we look forward to welcoming you and your ideas.

Posted by Dana Baddar, YouTube Space Dubai Manager.

Google

Making It Easier to Go Live

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Today we're making it easier to go live and interact with your community from your computer and phone.

First, if you’ve ever tried to set up a live stream from your computer using an encoder, you know there can be a few steps involved. Today, we’re making the process as easy as a couple of clicks. Just head over to youtube.com/webcam or click on “Go live” in the YouTube header to start your stream. You don’t need any additional streaming software or extra set up.

Creators who tested early versions have been using it for live beauty tutorials, fan updates and product reviews. This feature is available on Chrome today, and we’ll be expanding to more browsers soon.

We also want to make streaming from your phone just as easy too. In the coming months, you’ll be able to start a live stream directly from the camera app in select devices from Asus, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung. Our goal is to bring this feature to even more device manufacturers throughout the year through the new YouTube Mobile Live deep link.

So whether you want to hold a mini concert, teach snowboarding or celebrate a milestone with fans, these tools will make it easier to share and interact with your community live. Check out the YouTube Live channel to discover the latest streams and get inspired by other live creators.

Vadim Lavrusik, Live Video Product Manager, recently watched "Jazz Piano Chords with Good Voice Leading."

Google

YouTube Studio: Better Insights, New Metrics & Faster Access to News

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

One of the most important tools for creators is the Creator Studio: the hub where you upload videos, manage your channel, and grow your community. In June of last year we announced a new beta version, renamed YouTube Studio. Hundreds of thousands of creators have been using the beta and providing invaluable feedback, which we've been implementing to make YouTube Studio a more efficient, empowering and enjoyable tool for you. Over the coming weeks, we’ll begin to make YouTube Studio the default experience for many creators (but will still give you the option to go back to Creator Studio Classic if you want to).

YouTube Studio’s most anticipated features include three new metrics that will give you better understanding of how your videos perform, and an all new Dashboard that shows you personalized news and information for your channel.

New ways for creators to understand their reach on YouTube

Moving forward, you’ll see three new metrics in YouTube Analytics – Impressions, Impressions click-through rate, and Unique Viewers – that give a deeper understanding of your reach on YouTube. These new metrics are rolling out to a small group of creators today and will be available to everyone in YouTube Studio within a few weeks. A couple of weeks after that they will be available in Creator Studio Classic.

Impressions

An Impression is counted when a viewer on YouTube sees one of your video thumbnails. Impressions tell you the potential reach of your content on YouTube, since each impression is an opportunity to earn a view.

It’s important to note that the impression metric only reflects impressions generated by your thumbnails on YouTube, including thumbnails on the homepage, subscription feed, search, and “up next” section. This help center article describes in detail what is and isn’t included in the impressions metric.

Impressions click-through rate

We’re also adding Impressions click-through rate, which shows you the percentage of your impressions on YouTube that turned into views. Different factors affect your click-through rate. For example, effective thumbnails and titles that attract your target audience may drive this rate up. This metric can help you make more informed decisions on how to optimize your titles and thumbnails, especially when you look at how this metric changes between past videos. For more best practices, we recommend you read this help center article.

Unique viewers

Unique viewers shows the estimated number of different people who watch your videos over a period of time. Whether they watch on desktop, mobile phone or watched more than one of your videos, that person will count as one unique viewer.
You can use this data to compare your audience size to your subscriber base, and identify videos that helped reach a wider audience. This information can also help guide your content strategy, and showcase your true reach when discussing brand deals and sponsorships.

We encourage you to check out our Creator Insider Video, Creator Academy lesson and help center articles for additional tips on how to use these metrics.

Introducing the YouTube Studio Dashboard

You’ve asked us for a “one stop shop” for data, insights and news so you don't have to spend time searching for it. The new dashboard will now provide a snapshot of your latest upload, personalized recommendations, and instant access to news.

What you'll see:

Video Snapshot: You'll get a snapshot of how your newest video is performing compared to your previous uploads over the same time period. Previously, you had to pull this data from multiple sources and calculate it on your own.
Personalized Recommendations: Here we'll surface Creator Academy content based on the specific needs of your channel. In the future we’ll also help you understand why certain videos perform better than others so you can adapt your plans for future videos.
News: You shouldn’t have to search for the news; it should come to you. With this feature, you’ll get the latest updates from across YouTube so you can easily stay up to speed on everything that affects the creator community.

The Dashboard will roll out to all channels over the next couple of weeks and we’ll continue to add more content based on your feedback. We're dedicated to making YouTube one of the best places for creators and hope these new features help make that possible.

Posted by Assaf Reifer, Product Manager for YouTube Analytics and Ezequiel Baril, Product Manager for YouTube Studio.