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Comment by znpy | Hacker News Reader

So Youtube is announcing "super chats"... Basically if you pay, your message to a live stream is highlighted so that the streamer can notice it.

Basically is the camgirl business model, fifteen years later.

Nothing bad, just...lol.

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The way she said "Cool, no?!" after demonstrating this and the little silence after was half-way embarassing...

I mean, they sure DO know that this feature has been on twitch for one year now, right? It should have been a side note somewhere or an announce on a product blog, not a full blown stage demo...

I think the point of it being presented at I/O was a new API that lets Youtube streamers sync up the "superchats" with anything they want in the real world.

Why didn't Twitter make this money a long time ago? All those tweets scrolling across TV for free...

Because Twitter can't deliver any kind of new product.

Because tweets are mostly curated for TV audiences. Paying for top tweets would show that editorial staff doesn't give a flying fudge about their audiance, and simply want to make money (which you are also giving it to them by sitting through commercials).

A more relevant comparison would be donations and cheering on Twitch.

I basically never used twitch, not my thing.

But still, I guess they also "copied" this feature :)

It's also definitely been used on Twitch in exactly the way it was with those they "copied" it from. They cracked down on it, but there's only so much you can do with dress code policies et c. Considering there's more than a hint of this already all over Youtube without this feature, I hope their moderators are prepared for some long hours.

Don't worry, when Twitch added it, there was jokes of it becoming one of "those sites" for months. It is an easy comparison to make, but to be fair, the porn industry has always been at the forefront when it comes to innovation. Things like video players, live streaming, donations, etc.

Realistically though, I don't see anything wrong with someone supporting a channel they enjoy. I honestly wish Youtube had more of it. It's ridiculous how many creators have to use 3rd party services like Patreon. It makes so much sense for Google to have it built in instead.

Youtube was far behind porn site's HTML5 video players for years. It was in 'beta' forever. I always thought it was strange how slow they were to improve it, being a billion dollar company and all and having a pretty straight-foward product page where people spend 99% of their time, engaging with a single piece of tech.

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