iWorld
YouTube introduces new initiatives to help creators earn more
MUMBAI: For young artists and aspiring entrepreneurs across the globe, YouTube has been nothing short of a revolution. While advertising has been the major source of revenue for YouTube’s creator community, the Google-owned site now wants to go beyond ads. The tech giant has started working on new tools to enable creators to make more money.
YouTube’s ‘Sponsorship’ feature has now been rebranded to ‘Channel Membership’. Consumers can pay a monthly recurring fee of $4.99 to get unique badges, new emojis, members-only posts in the Community tab, along with access to customised perks offered by creators. Earlier, this feature was limited to select YouTube channels only. This feature will soon be expanded to every eligible channel that commands 100,000 subscribers.
While merchandising may not be a new concept for the YouTube community, the company has partnered with Treespring to help creators design and sell products on the platform. In a tab under the video itself, creators can now offer t-shirts, hats, phone cases or any one of the 20 merchandise items.
To help publishers build better engagement with consumers, YouTube has introduced Premieres, a new way to upload content.
“With Premieres, creators will be able to debut pre-recorded videos as a live moment. When creators choose to release a Premiere, we’ll automatically create a public landing page to build anticipation and hype up new content,” the company said in a blog post.
For the first time ever, creators can use Super Chat and take advantage of Channel Membership perks on traditional YouTube uploads. These were previously available on Live Videos.
“We hope these tools help creators build a stronger community and earn more money while doing it, because when they succeed, the entire YouTube community thrives,” the blog read.
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iWorld
Schmooze launches AI matchmaker Riya to personalise dating
300,000 users try feature as retention doubles on Gen Z dating app.
MUMBAI: Love might be blind, but now it’s also algorithmically curated and apparently quite chatty. Schmooze has introduced an AI-powered personal matchmaker named Riya, marking its latest push to move beyond swipe-led dating into deeper, personality-driven matchmaking. Unlike traditional matching systems, Riya interacts directly with users through conversations asking about everything from lifestyle and humour to relationship goals and family values. The idea is simple but ambitious: understand users beyond surface-level preferences and recommend matches that actually fit.
The feature builds on a pattern Schmooze had already observed. Its earlier AI tool, People Finder, allowed users to describe their ideal partner in detail and users did exactly that. Requests ranged from “an extrovert who works in tech and likes to cook” to hyper-specific traits, signalling a clear shift towards intent-driven dating.
That insight exposed a gap. While dating apps typically rely on probability-based algorithms, many users already know what they want they just lack a system that can interpret it meaningfully.
Riya attempts to fill that gap using a conversational approach. Instead of rigid inputs, it gathers signals organically sometimes through casual questions about weekend plans or social habits while mapping deeper compatibility markers in the background.
To support this, Schmooze has built its own end-to-end voice AI stack and large language model, rather than relying on third-party systems. The move is aimed at keeping costs in check while handling scale, and ensuring tighter control over user data and privacy.
The early numbers suggest traction. More than 300,000 users have already interacted with Riya, with those users showing 2× higher retention compared to others on the platform. While the system is designed for short interactions, some users are spending up to 40–50 minutes in conversation occasionally even asking for date ideas, prompting the company to add personalised recommendations.
The launch is the latest step in Schmooze’s broader attempt to rethink dating for Gen Z. Founded by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, the platform initially stood out by using memes as a proxy for personality tracking over 3.5 billion meme swipes across its base of more than 5 million users.
In a market dominated by global players like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, Schmooze’s approach signals a shift from visual-first discovery to interaction-led compatibility. And with AI now stepping in as a digital wingman, the dating game may be moving from swipe right to speak right.
