Announced on Monday, Snap has debuted a new feature dubbed Spotlight, which enables users to create short-form video content similar to TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.
“We designed Spotlight to entertain our community while living up to Snapchat values, with our community’s well being as a top priority,” the company said in a statement.
Spotlight will show users the top snaps that have been submitted by the app’s more than 249 million daily users in a feed which they can swipe or tap through. Until the user swipes to the next video, Spotlight snaps will play in a continuous loop.
The offering comes at a time when consumers are still spending more time at home due to COVID-19, especially as cases continue to rise. The offering also creates an opportunity for Snap to expand the content that is available to its users. Prior to Spotlight, Snapchat users were limited to viewing snaps posted by their friends or by publishers found in the app’s Discover feature. The new Spotlight offering now enables users to view an endless feed of user-generated content, all in one place.
To motivate users to submit clips, Snapchat will be offering a daily pool of more than $1 million to users who create snaps that are the most entertaining. To determine payout, the company plans to utilize a proprietary equation that will take views of a snap into consideration.
Contributors must be at least 16 years old to earn a payout and until the end of the year, the company will offer daily payouts. The program is similar to TikTok’s creator program and Facebook’s Instagram Reels, as both programs offer to pay creatives to post photos and videos on their platforms.
At launch, Spotlight will not incorporate ads but will introduce them in the next coming months. Spotlight content will also be moderated and at this time, it does not allow public comments.
Spotlight is initially being made available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France, with more countries to come.