San Francisco, June 14 : Video-sharing platform YouTube has announced that it is lowering the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and also introduced a few monetisation methods for smaller creators, including paid chat, tipping, channel memberships and shopping features. With the new policy, the YPP will be accessible to creators after they acquire 500 subscribers, which is half of what YouTube previously demanded, reports The Verge. Instead of 4,000 valid watch hours, creators will just require 3,000, or 3 million shorts views compared to the previous 10 million. These lower requirements will initially roll out in the US, the UK, Canada, Taiwan and South Korea. The company also mentioned that the same YPP rules will continue for revenue sharing, so smaller creators will still need to expand their audience to profit from ad revenue. Also, the shopping affiliate programme which was previously available by invitation only to select creators, is now available to YPP participants in the US with a minimum of 20,000 subscribers, reports The Verge. Meanwhile, in February this year, the company had rolled out a new marketplace, Creator Music, an easy way for creators in the YPP in the US to access an ever-growing catalogue of music for use in their videos while still being able to monetise. /IANS