By Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube will allow more creators to monetize their presence on the platform, including creators with smaller followings.
The company announced today it is lowering the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program and opening up a handful of monetization methods to smaller creators, including paid chat, tipping, channel memberships, and shopping features.
Under the new eligibility policy, the YPP will be open to creators once they reach 500 subscribers — half the number that YouTube previously had. Other benchmarks are changing, too: participating creators will need 3,000 valid watch hours instead of 4,000, or 3 million Shorts views compared to the original 10 million. The lower requirements will initially roll out in the US,…