Snapchat to distribute $1 million a day to Spotlight users for viral clips
Snapchat is offering a share of more than $1 million to its top content creators every day as it tries to compete against social media rivals TikTok and Instagram with its new feature called Spotlight.
The messaging app’s new entertainment platform, which resembles TikTok’s short-form video feed as well as Instagram’s Reels, will showcase user-generated clips from the Snapchat community. The clips that appear in Spotlight can be from those with private personal accounts or from content creators with millions of subscribers.
To motivate its users, the company said that it will distribute more than $1 million per day to Spotlight creators who will share the most popular clips.
“We built Spotlight to be a place where anyone’s content can take center stage – without needing a public account, or an influencer following,” Snapchat said in a statement. “It’s a fair and fun place for Snapchatters to share their best Snaps and see perspectives from across the Snapchat community.”
The company explained that its content algorithms will work to surface the most engaging clips to each user based on their personal preferences and favorites. Its ranking algorithm, meanwhile, will determine several factors including the amount of time a user spent watching a clip or if it’s favorited or shared by friends. It will also consider negative factors, like if the viewer skipped watching the Snap quickly.
The company said that earnings via Spotlight are determined by a proprietary formula which rewards users primarily based on the total number of unique views a video gets per day, as compared to the performance of other clips on the platform. It noted that many of its users will earn each day, but the ones who create clips with the most views within that group will earn the most for their creativity.
Snapchat said that the program will run through the end of 2020, and could potentially continue next year. The new feature is currently available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France, with more countries coming soon.
