The livestreaming market is tough to be competitive in when one platform has already taken hold of an overwhelming share of the market. Twitch remains dominant while YouTube and Facebook Gaming try to draw more content creators over with exclusivity agreements. Mixer couldn't stay afloat, and that was the biggest competitor to Twitch at the time of its demise. YouTube is trying to raise the profile of its livestreaming program by adding new features. Now, the platform is looking to add a feature that is already popular on Twitch.

While YouTube is certainly going strong, with millions of videos and billions of views back that up, the company is making a concerted effort to make its YouTube Gaming brand stronger. The company signed a deal with Pewdiepie last year to have the ever-popular Swede stream exclusively on YouTube, and has been looking to lock in talent for a while. Livestreaming on YouTube has slowly evolved to include bits and pieces that resemble what Twitch is doing, channel memberships, donations, and live chat to name a few.

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Now, YouTube is kicking off a trial run of one of Twitch's most popular features, Clips. On a select few gaming channels, viewers will be able to clip their favorite moments of a stream, ranging from 5 seconds long, up to a minute. Clips can be easily shared on other social media platforms, like Twitter, meaning they can reach a wider audience and possibly go viral, like the Twitch clip of AOC killing Pokimane in Among Us. It stands to reason that YouTube is hoping for the same kind of result with its clips.

Unlike Twitch's clips however, the YouTube clip is not a separate video, but rather a looped segment of the broadcast. Because it is linked to the livestream video, if that video should be removed from the channel, the clip will also vanish.

If fans want to preserve a moment like Dr Disrespect donning a bald cap while playing Hitman 3, they can. The only thing that could prevent them from doing so, and something that could prove problematic for YouTube Gaming, is that if a livestream goes over 8 hours, the clip feature will not be available. Gaming streams can most definitely go over that time limit, so if YouTube can adjust that, it might help for those longer streams.

By adding in little features here and there, YouTube is attempting to make its platform the place to be for livestreaming. When Twitch takes heat for something like DMCA takedowns, YouTube begins to look like a better option. YouTube is still well behind Twitch in the livestreaming market, but by adding in some fun, albeit familiar, functions to its platform, it might be able lure a bigger audience.

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Source: Google