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YouTube has expanded access to its livestream Jewels once again, with Korean YouTube users now able to access its in-stream donation and engagement option.
Jewels which YouTube first launched back in 2024 with U.S. creators, and were expanded to Canadian users last month, are essentially an in-app currency that enables livestream viewers to purchase digital stickers that they can then apply during a livestream.
That gives viewers a way to make their donations stand out, which can help them get recognized by the streamer, while a percentage of the sticker purchase price goes back to the creator.
Essentially, it provides a fun way to donate to your favorite YouTubers in-stream, and now, Korean streamers and their fans can also use Jewels to show their appreciation.
As explained by YouTube: “Gifts and jewels are launching in Korea. As a refresher, gifts are a fun and interactive way for viewers to express reactions and appreciation for creators during vertical live streams. Jewels are digital items that viewers can purchase to send gifts, and creators earn Rubies based on the Jewels that viewers redeem for gifts.”
Okay, that might require some additional clarity.
There are two payment elements within this donation process, with Jewels, that users purchase to then exchange for in-app stickers, and Rubies, which are what creators gain from Jewels donations. As viewers submit these stickers via the livestream chat, creators then earn a percentage of the purchase price, and that percentage is represented in Rubies. Once the creator has enough Rubies, they can exchange them for real money.
As YouTube explains in its Help Center article on the feature, Rubies are calculated by multiplying the number of Rubies a creator has earned by the revenue YouTube pays per Ruby, which is $0.01. Different stickers have different values, based on how expensive they are to purchase, and creators can view the number of Rubies they’ve earned during livestreams in YouTube analytics.
Which seems like an overly complicated way to say that creators earn a percentage of the purchase price of any stickers submitted during the stream, but clearly, YouTube sees some value in obscuring the dollar amounts with these additional tags.
Either way, Korean creators now have another way to earn from their livestreams, and viewers have another option to show their appreciation during a live broadcast.