Snapchat officially launches Spotlight to compete with TikTok

TikTok might be making waves nowadays, but it sure can’t breathe easy. Snap clearly has every intention of boosting its social media platform and competing directly with the popular Chinese app. This is because Snap has officially launched a new section of Snapchat called Spotlight that will bring up vertical video content from users that is more meme-y and funny instead of the usual daily Snap content.

TikTok has had quite a year, rising through the ranks to become the most downloaded app during the third quarter of 2020 and predicted to achieve over 1 billion monthly active users in 2021. However, if Snap’s recent plans are anything to go by, the Chinese behemoth can expect some very stiff competition.

You see, Snap is not only integrating a TikTok-like feature in Snapchat; it is also going to pay people to post such content on a regular basis. The company said that it will divide $1 million among the most popular creators on the app per day all the way till the end of 2020. And of course, the more viral the content, the greater the share of the $1 million that the content creator gets.

It doesn’t even matter if the person has a handful of subscribers; the amount each content creator will receive is based primarily on the number of unique views their content gets as compared to other snaps on tat particular day. Plus, creators can continue to earn from their content if it stays popular for several days.

And then there is the fact that Snap has made sure that all profiles on Spotlight will be private by default and the company has refused to keep a public comments section as well. With this level of privacy protection, and the generous financial incentive being offered, the TikTok hordes won’t mind shifting to Spotlight.

Spotlight, which will have its own dedicated tab in the app, is launching in 11 countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia.