YouTube has announced the beta of a new feature, ‘Memberships Gifting’ or gift memberships which will allow you to buy memberships to later give them away to viewers of a channel’s live show, as it already does Twitch with your subscriptions.

YouTube Gaming announced in October of last year a series of news that included a new function for gift memberships to other viewers of a channel. This feature was introduced to YouTube Japan in February as an alpha, the first full version of an initiative before being tested, with a small group of channels.

Gift membership has been adopted now in beta with a small group of creators in the US and UK, as the company explains on its American help blog. With this novelty, the members of the channel have the possibility of buying 5, 10 or 20 memberships that will later be delivered to other viewers of a live show.

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Viewers who receive one of these gift memberships (for which they pay nothing) get one month of channel access with perks like custom emojis, loyalty badges, and more. Besides, the creator gets their share of the revenue as usual with each transaction.

YouTube will distribute free memberships to viewers based on how much they interact with the channel. Winning users will receive a live chat and email notification. Additionally, existing members will not be eligible to receive one of these gifts.

The platform clarifies that the distribution of the income generated by gift memberships follows the same pattern as that used by digital application stores, such as the App Store. Therefore, 70 percent will go to the creator and the remaining 30 percent to YouTube in the form of commission.

YouTube indicates in its statement that it is not yet ready for the global deployment of this new feature, and for this reason it has launched it as a beta with a reduced group of channels and options. For example, it is not yet possible to purchase gift memberships from a mobile device.

The widespread deployment of this initiative, which is reminiscent of the ability to give away subscriptions in Twitch will take place in the coming months.

YouTube will distribute the gifted memberships to viewers based on how much they engage with the channel. Winning users will receive a live chat and email notification. Besides, those who are already members will not be eligible to receive one of these gifts.