Snapchat launches in-app video platform ‘Spotlight’

Snapchat is launching a new feature to highlight user-created videos called Spotlight, signaling another competitor for the highly popular video sharing app TikTok.

While Snapchat has largely focused on peer-to-peer features unlike other social media platforms, the new Spotlight announced on Monday will showcase user-generated content within the app and offer users a chance to be paid for top content. 

The content on Spotlight will also “become tailored to each” user over time, based on their “preferences and favorites,” Snapchat said. 

“Spotlight was designed to entertain the Snapchat community while living up to Snapchat’s values, with their well-being as a top priority,” the company said in the announcement. 

Snapchat’s Spotlight rollout comes as TikTok’s popularity has risen.

TikTok allows users to create 60-second videos. The platform’s main “For You Page” features content for users tailored to them based on posts with which they’ve engaged. 

Over the summer, Facebook-owned Instagram launched a feature similar to TikTok called Reels that allows users to create short videos, and lets users scroll through a page of user-generated videos. Earlier this month, Instagram launched a redesign that more prominently placed the Reels icon in the center of the app. 

Snapchat also said it will pay users for the top content on Spotlight. The company will distribute over $1 million every day to Snapchatters who create the top Snaps on Spotlight, at least through the end of the year, according to its announcement.

Earnings will be determined by a proprietary formula that will reward creators primarily based on the total number of unique video views a Snap gets in a given day, as compared to the performance of other videos, Snapchat said.

The company did not say how it will decide which users receive certain sums of the daily distributions. 

TikTok in July announced it would pay some creators on its platform through its $200 million creator fund.  

Unlike other social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat said Spotlight content will not allow for public comments. 

But the content on Snapchat’s Spotlight will be moderated, the company said, using a combination of human review and machine learning to ensure it is in compliance with the company’s community guidelines.

Snapchat’s guidelines prohibit the spread of misinformation that can cause harm and prohibit the manipulation of media for misleading purposes. The guidelines also prohibit hate speech, bullying, harassment, violent content, impersonation or sexually explicit content.

But the new feature could open Snapchat up to concerns over content moderation. Other social media platforms, specifically Twitter and Facebook, have faced increasing scrutiny from both sides of the aisle over their handling of content moderation. 

Republicans have accused the tech giants of an anti-conservative bias over the platforms’ labeling of misinformation. Democrats, however, have largely criticized the platforms for not taking enough action over misinformation and hate speech.  

TikTok has faced its own challenges in the U.S. The Trump administration has sought to overhaul how the Beijing-owned app operates in the U.S. 

An executive order called for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, but the Trump administration last week granted a 15-day extension to the order, pushing the new deadline to Friday.

–Updated at 12:05 p.m.