• by Alex Weprin , April 19, 2018

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki released a letter to creators on the platform this week, updating them on transparency, enforcing the company’s policies, and its monetization rule changes.

Monetization in particular has been a hot-button issue in recent months, after the company shifted its guidelines for what channels and videos are eligible to have advertising. The rule change saw many small channels no longer eligible for monetization.

In the letter, Wojcicki said the change needed to be made to reassure the advertising community.

“While we know some creators found this change frustrating, it strengthened advertiser confidence, making monetization and the broader community on YouTube stronger for creators building their business on the platform,” she wrote. “For those who have not yet met the new threshold, keep creating and building your audience.”

The company is currently piloting a system that allows creators to provide details about the content of their videos, potentially allowing for monetization to be turned on faster, and preventing false positives for inn appropriate content.

YouTube is also beginning to explore monetization options outside of advertising.

“We recently began testing sponsorships with a limited set of creators,” Wojcicki wrote. “This lets fans set up recurring sponsorships that can help fund their favorite creators. Many sponsored creators saw substantial increases in their overall YouTube revenue, so we plan to expand this to many more creators in the coming months.”

Despite its brand-safety controversies over the past year, YouTube remains the dominant free ad-supported video platform. Wojcicki writer in her letter that the platform’s creator community is growing at a “healthy, responsible rate,” with channels earning six figures in ad income up 40% compared to last year, and channels earning five figures in income up 35% compared to last year

She also addressed the shooting that took place at the company’s California headquarters two weeks ago.

“As you can imagine, the last two weeks have been incredibly difficult for the people who work at YouTube, myself included,” she wrote. “As challenging as the experience has been for our YouTube family, the outpouring of support and kindness from creators has bolstered our spirits and reminded us why this work is so important.”