YouTube To Take On Amazon And Instagram? YouTube Creators May Be Able to Sell Products In Videos

YouTube may soon allow creators and other users to sell their merchandise and other products directly on the platform. YouTube has begun testing tools for channel creators to tag various products featured in their videos in a bid to sell them directly through the video-sharing platform, according to a Bloomberg report. The report notes that the move aims to “convert YouTube’s bounty of videos into a vast catalogue of items that viewers can peruse, click on and buy directly.” Further, YouTube is reportedly testing integration with Shopify to achieve this goal.

Speaking on the development, a company official told the publication that creators would have full “control” over the products that they are planning to sell. The move could potentially pose threats to leading e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba as YouTube has over 2 billion users. However, the development appears to be in its early stages, and the company official described the move “as an experiment.” It is possible that the shopping experience on YouTube could be limited to premium users at first and later reach regular users. At the moment, it is also unclear how YouTube will generate revenue from these sales directly from the platform.