The YouTube Partner Program is set to become available in Armenia, allowing Armenian creators to earn revenue from the platform.
According to an announcement by YouTube on Feb.10, YouTubers in Armenia will be able to monetize their channels by spring and become part of a global community of creators. The announcement came during the U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Armenia.
Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, minister of high-tech industry, provided further details during his press conference on Feb. 16.
“For a long time, the Government of Armenia, specifically the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, as well as our colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been negotiating with Google and YouTube to activate the YouTube Partner Program in Armenia,” Hayrapetyan said. “ In verbal conversations, it was mentioned that it would be activated in late April or early May.”
Eligible creators will be able to generate income through advertisements, memberships, and Super Chat (paid messages in live streams). To qualify, channels need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days, according to YouTube.
The news came as a great delight to Milena Baghumyan, a YouTuber with more than 9,000 subscribers.
“I thought it’s a sign to continue,” she said.
Until now, Armenian creators could upload videos and gain followers, but were unable to officially monetize their content through the YouTube Partner Program. This prevented many from pursuing YouTube as a full-time career, though it did not stop them from building their channels and securing external sponsorships.
“Since Armenian channels were not monetized, I focused more on engagement and creativity rather than treating it as a serious income source,” Baghumyan said, adding that she previously treated her channel as a hobby and relied on other sources of revenue.
With monetization pending, YouTube is gaining recognition as a viable career path.
“A number of bloggers and media outlets will get serious financial opportunities,” said Samvel Martirosyan, an information security and media expert.
However, Martirosyan doubts that the change will be drastic.
“Monetization depends on advertising budgets, and in Armenia, they are not huge in any case,” he said.
While YouTube monetization has its advantages, Martirosyan expects some disadvantages as well.
“The advantage is that Armenian content is finally being monetized, which especially gives channels the opportunity to improve their financial independence,” he said. “The downside is that many people will start blogging, podcasting to earn money…and because of the competition, the income of good content creators will decrease.”
Martirosyan added that a large number of people will start to perceive YouTube as a business, which will negatively affect the content.
“The risk is precisely that a clearly capitalist model will begin to operate, directly causing content creators to focus on the potential income, rather than the quality,” he said.
Negatively or not, the idea of monetization is already affecting how creators think about their content.
According to the YouTube Partner Program, revenue depends on watch time and audience retention, which is why creators are starting to pay closer attention to what performs best.
“Since unboxing videos perform best on my channel, I will likely produce more of that type,” Baghumyan said.
At the same time, many Armenian YouTubers are not yet eligible for the program. Martin Papikyan, a new creator with just over 200 subscribers, is one of them.
“I’m still a beginner on YouTube, so monetization is unfortunately not yet available for my channel,” Papikyan said. “For now, monetization is more of a small motivation to become financially independent in the future, but it doesn’t have a direct impact.”
His strategy is based on steady growth rather than quick revenue, although earning sustainable income from YouTube is still on his radar.
“My strategy is very simple: stay humble, learn from mistakes, be punctual, and accept constructive criticism,” he said. “I hope to eventually earn enough income to make YouTube my full-time job.”