Snapchat’s Spotlight feature already has 100 million users

Snapchat’s TikTok rival, Spotlight, already has more than 100 million users just over two months after launching. The company revealed the statistic as part of its fourth-quarter earnings report for 2020.

Spotlight features a stream of user-generated videos in a dedicated section of its app. Snap has been able to drum up interest in the feature by spending millions of dollars to pay the creators of the most popular videos. “We are seeing over 175,000 video submissions per day, on average, in part due to our incentive program for creators, where we distribute over $1 million per day to the top performing videos,” CEO Evan Spiegel said during a call with analysts.

It’s not clear if Snap plans to pay video creators indefinitely, though CFO Derek Andersen said the company “will continue to support the launch of Spotlight with our $1 million per day creator fund in order to build on the momentum we are seeing with this exciting new platform.” The payments have generated significant interest in the feature among users. Last month, The New York Times reported that some of the most successful Spotlight creators — some of whom are still teens — have made millions of dollars from viral clips.

Snap’s success with Spotlight comes amid increasing competition from other platforms. TikTok recently announced a $200 million fund to pay its top creators, while Instagram has experimented with new ways for influencers to make money from the app. (The company hasn’t shared metrics for its TikTok clone, reels.)

Snapchat is also continuing to grow outside of Spotlight. The app added 15 million new users last quarter, bringing its total daily active users up to 265 million. The company reported $911 million in revenue for the quarter, a 62 percent increase from last year. At the same time, the company also cautioned that Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 update, which requires apps to ask for users’ permission for ad tracking features, could present a “risk” to the company.