YouTube $20 Payouts, Discord Going Discoverable, Twitch Loot Boxes, + Hasan Sues for $72M

Good morning from Ontario, and welcome to the 228th weekly newsletter! There's a lot of super interesting stories this week, including YouTube testing $20 payouts (instead of the usual $100 threshold), Discord attempting to open access to servers by making the content more discoverable, Reddit going the opposite way and putting the platform behind a login gate, and Twitch leaning into gambling culture with a new experiment. As always, there's lots of other industry stories, platform updates, creator news, and the usual keys, career, and creator opportunities section at the bottom!

If you enjoy the newsletter, please share with a fellow creator, or consider becoming a Premium member for just $5 a month! And with that, let's jump into it!

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch is testing a loot box system for emotes. You can pay to get Premium chests by gifting subs, or get regular chests with lower odds for free by hitting Watch Streaks.
• Twitch Sponsorships have recently stopped including game keys for recent campaigns. It's unbelievable how much these take advantage of creators who do not know their value.
• Twitch is testing paying Clippers to post content that Partners share in their Stream Recaps. They're cutely calling this Recap Spotlights.
• Twitch will soon add a new category: Trading Cards & Collectibles.
• New Paid Badges: Elden Ring, Hunt: Showdown 1896, Twitch Rivals.
• New Free Badges: Hunt: Showdown 1896
• Twitch CEO has launched a newsletter. Much like his podcast, it's probably not worth your time. If he posts anything of value, I'll share it!

🟥 YOUTUBE

• YouTube is testing a $20 payment threshold (instead of $100) for some creators in the USA, India, and Indonesia.
• YouTube missed ad revenue expectations as growth slowed in Q3; it only grew by 9.2% year over year. However, Living room viewing generated 1/3 of its revenue this quarter.
• YouTube is testing a new way to soften the blow if your channel gets hit for spam concerns, giving you a chance to fix it before your account gets terminated.
• The FTC is probing YouTube over creators whose accounts were suspended because the platform misled them about what content they could post.

🟦 OTHER PLATFORMS

• WhatNot has introduced a Seller API, enabling better inventory and fulfillment across multiple accounts.