Snapchat paying $1 million a day to creators of popular short videos
Evan Alberto says he’s on track to become a millionaire in just a few weeks thanks to his consistent Snapchat usage.
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Since late November, the company has maintained a $1 million daily pool which it pays out to the creators of each day’s top-performing videos on its short-form video service, Spotlight.
The company determines payout based on how many views a video gets in comparison to that of other highly viewed snaps.
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The move is meant to draw more creators to make videos for Spotlight, the company’s TikTok competitor, which in turn will help Snap attract and retain users.
Spotlight has grown to more than 100 million monthly active users, the company said on its latest earnings call, and has over 175,000 video submissions per day.
Meanwhile, the app overall grew to 265 million global daily active users in its fourth quarter of 2020, from 249 million in Q3.
So far, Snap has given out more than $110 million overall across the markets where Spotlight is live. Alberto, 22, is among the latest benefactors of the company’s venture.
“Originally I just did it for more exposure, I wasn’t quite sure how much money was in there,” said Alberto, who’s been working as a content creator for two years.
He snapped a quick video with his girlfriend at dinner one night, posted it and didn’t think much of it. Two weeks later, he got a notification that the video had made him $94,000.
“When the first check came in from Snap, I thought it was a typo,” he said. Since then, he’s been working to post 20 to 40 videos daily under the handle @evanthecardguy where he has 111,000 subscribers. He says that as of March 18 he’s made around $900,000 from his videos, where he does magic tricks, challenges and “basically anything that fits sort of a game show hype.”
Alberto said he’s using his earnings to look for his first house. He even got a tattoo of the Snapchat ghost logo on his ankle, and, of course, posted the experience as a Spotlight.
“This is such an awesome opportunity I’m trying to make the most of it,” he said.
Snap’s millionaire club
Alberto will likely soon join a growing list of content creators who have become millionaires through the social media company. Snap said “several” users have become millionaires through the club since Nov. 2020.
The company also recently rolled out Spotlight in India, Mexico and Brazil along with its $1 million-a-day incentive program.
“Traditionally a platform comes out like TikTok and it kind of steals the attention from other places but Snapchat seems to kind of be reigniting,” Alberto said. “People think of Snap as a way to make stories and communicate with friends.
