YouTube and Creators HQ to Train 1,000 MENA Creators to Earn From YouTube Shopping

The masterclasses will run through YouTube Academy, the training programme the platform set up with Creators HQ last year, which has trained more than 5,000 creators since its launch, according to the announcement carried by the state news agency WAM. The partners described the new effort as the region's first incubator focused on helping creators increase their revenue through shopping features.

The partnership is a bet on video commerce in the Gulf. It follows YouTube's launch of its Shopping affiliate programme in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which lets eligible creators tag products in videos, Shorts and live streams and earn a commission when viewers buy. Amazon is the programme's first affiliate partner, and YouTube said more e-commerce platforms will be added soon.

YouTube said the feature uses Google's AI to recognise products that appear in videos and suggest tagging them, saving creators manual work. Viewers watching on television can scan an on-screen QR code with their phones to complete a purchase.

The company cited figures it said showed the scale of demand: people worldwide watch more than 40 billion hours of shopping-related content on YouTube a year, and in a Kantar survey 94% of respondents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia said YouTube offered the best shopping-related content, while 86% said it had the most trusted creators for product recommendations.

Alia Al Hammadi, deputy head of the UAE Government Media Office and deputy chief executive of the 1 Billion Followers Summit, said the masterclasses would help creators turn audience engagement into income. YouTube's head for the Middle East and North Africa said the programme gives creators another practical way to build their businesses and gives brands access to highly engaged audiences.

The initiative will include a YouTube Shopping showcase at the fifth 1 Billion Followers Summit, which the Government Media Office will hold in Dubai from 8 to 10 January 2027 at Jumeirah Emirates Towers, DIFC and the Museum of the Future.