Last November, Snap launched a new feature called Spotlight to compete with TikTok and Instagram Reels. The launch got somewhat buried with all the 2020 presidential election news and the majority of outlets didn’t pick up onto it until recently. Why? Because a number of teenagers are becoming millionaires by submitting their videos.
As part of Snap’s Spotlight rollout, they launched a fund (similar to TikTok’s Creator Fund) that gives creators the opportunity to earn a share of $1 million dollars…every single day. You read that right, $1m+ is available every day. You would think something with that amount of money behind it would be everywhere on social media but it really hasn’t. Up until a few weeks ago, many creators didn’t even know it existed nor did they understand how much money they could make.
Fast forward 2 months and dozens of creators are amassing small fortunes uploading up to 100+ videos every day to get a piece of the million. To date, Snap has paid out over $50m to 1,000+ creators according to Tubefilter. One of those is TikTok star Cam Casey (7.2m followers), who has earned almost $3 million dollars from the Spotlight Fund over the last 8 weeks.
How does it work?
Pretty simple, when you go to send your snap to friends, you can choose to send it to Spotlight as well. Then if the video performs well, you get paid automatically. That’s it. You don’t have to have a certain follower count, get approved nor request a payout.
Snap has made it incredibly easy for creators to monetize and that’s the point. They are trying to steal market share from TikTok and Instagram and it seems to be working. The TikTok Creator Fund, which launched last summer, paved the way for Spotlight but Snap has clearly improved the process. So we will see if TikTok makes adjustments to keep its creators posting content exclusively on TikTok. Whatever happens, this is a massive win for creators.
How much are creators actually making?
Here the creators and earnings we have seen mentioned across various sources:
Cam Casey - 7.2m fans - $2,700,000+
Joey Rogoff - 3.8m fans - $1,000,000+
Katie Feeney -5.2m fans - $1,000,000+
Dominic Andre - 6.7m fans - $600,000+
Andrea Romo - $500,000+
David Dobrik - 25.1m fans - $103,000
CJ OperAmericano - 852k fans - $100,000+
Dax Newman - 5.6m fans - $30,000
What’s Next for Spotlight?
It’s safe to say that the word is out and we will start to see thousands of creators jump ship and start posting to Spotlight. Just this morning, celebrities like Marshmello and Gary Vee were spotted submitting videos. Does that mean it’s too late to join? Not at all!
Snap has kept Spotlight view count and payout numbers on the down low but recently said they will start to release more metrics. Plus they have been clear from the beginning that all types of creators can submit to Spotlight and have a chance to earn a share of the daily proceeds. Combined that with all the recent buzz, it’s hard to see Snap pulling the plug anytime soon.
So it’s time to dust off that old Snap app and start uploading some videos this weekend!
Want to learn more about Snap Spotlight?
Here are some additional resources:
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