YouTube has officially announced the expansion of its Shopping Affiliate Programme to include key markets in the Middle East and North Africa: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. This expansion aims to enable creators to connect their audiences directly with products and facilitate digital shopping through visual content.
Under the new update, creators participating in the YouTube Partner Program who have more than 500 subscribers can now tag products within regular videos, Shorts, and live streams. This allows these creators to earn revenue and commissions from purchases made by viewers, even those located outside the countries where the service is available.
Strategic Partnership with Amazon and AI Support
The first phase of the program launches through a strategic partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon as the first commercial partner, with future plans to expand the partnership to include more local and international retailers. To reduce the operational burden on creators, YouTube employs Google AI technologies to automatically identify products within videos and suggest appropriate tags, saving hours of manual work.
The new update also allows users watching YouTube on smart TVs to complete purchases instantly by scanning a QR code displayed on the screen using their mobile devices, providing a seamless and integrated shopping experience across different screens.
What Changes Practically?
This launch represents a qualitative shift in the regional creator economy through two main paths:
- Lowering the eligibility threshold: Giving creators in the early stages of their journey (more than 500 subscribers) the opportunity to generate additional income from trusted product recommendations.
- Integrating content with commerce: Transforming entertainment and educational viewing, which sees high consumption rates in the region, into an immediate and reliable shopping experience thanks to the partnership with a major commercial platform like Amazon.
According to platform data, YouTube users in the Middle East record massive engagement rates with shopping content. A survey conducted by Kantar indicated that the vast majority of viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE consider YouTube content (such as educational videos and product reviews) to be the most reliable and trustworthy for helping them make purchasing decisions with greater confidence.