Snapchat to give out $1 million a day to creators of popular videos on its TikTok competitor

Snapchat
(Image credit: DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images)

Snapchat is launching a brand new TikTok competitor and unveiling plans to distribute $1 million among some lucky users on a daily basis.

On Monday, Snapchat began rolling out Spotlight, a new video tab that will highlight popular videos in the app as the company looks to compete with both TikTok and Instagram Reels, Axios reports. For at least the rest of the year, Snapchat said it will be giving out $1 million daily to users who submit the most popular Spotlight videos. Users have to be 16 or older to be eligible for the money, which can be split up among various people.

"Many Snapchatters will earn each day, and the ones who create the top Snaps within that group will earn the most for their creativity," Snapchat said.

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It wasn't entirely clear how much money one person could earn from Spotlight in a day other than Snapchat saying the amount would be "significant," according to CNN. The minimum amount will be $250, BuzzFeed News reports.

Snapchat said earnings will be based on a formula rewarding users "primarily based on the total number of unique video views a Snap gets in a given day" compared to "the performance of other Snaps that day," and it pledged to "actively monitor for fraud to ensure that we only account for authentic engagement with Snaps."

This, Variety wrote, was a "bid by Snap to keep top creative talent on its platform" rather than TikTok and Instagram, which rolled out the TikTok competitor Reels earlier this year. The $1 million a day program, Snapchat said, will "run through the end of 2020, and potentially beyond."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.