Google is Now Adding a Direct Shopping Feature on YouTube?
YouTube is the biggest video sharing platform that earns money through a plethora of different streams. It makes money by showing ads, allowing channels to have members that pay a fixed amount every month or by YouTube Premium that houses special content in the form of YouTube Red with no ads for a subscription fee. These options seem enough for a company as big as Google, which owns YouTube, but Google has more ambitious plans for its video-sharing subsidiary.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the CEO of Google wants to add a direct shopping feature on YouTube that will allow the viewers to buy the products shown in the video via YouTube directly. YouTube has recently started asking a few content creators to tag and track the products shown in the video using the YouTube software. It will allow YouTube to directly feature the products rather than redirecting to Amazon or any other website that is selling the product. Moreover, YouTube is also testing Shopify integration for selling items on YouTube itself.
A spokesperson from YouTube confirmed that the site is testing the feature with the collaboration of some YouTubers but refused to add any more details. The move, if done correctly, will transform YouTube from an advertisement giant to a contender in the e-commerce industry.
It is expected that YouTube shopping will be integrated with Google shopping, which has now become an established platform for thousands of shops and retail businesses. It is not sure how YouTube would earn by selling products from the site, but it seems Google is adamant about pushing the feature. YouTube already takes 30% of the payments done directly to the channels in the form of membership or super chat.
