Snapchat is updating its app with a new feature called Spotlight that will encourage people to share more creative videos publicly, and it will give out $1 million a day to users to participate in the section, which will surely draw comparisons to TikTok, too.
On Monday, Snapchat announced its latest product update, becoming the latest social media app to find itself needing to adjust to compete with TikTok, the Chinese-owned app that has remade the social media landscape.
On the surface, Spotlight looks like TikTok’s “For You” page, which is a feed of videos from everyday people that is customized for each user. Snapchat’s Spotlight page will have videos from users that incorporate some of that same behavior—leaning on dances, memes, comedy and general interests. Also, there is the ability to highlight Snapchat’s augmented reality Lenses, which are considered to be the most advanced in the industry.
Spotlight will not show ads when it launches today. Usually, social media companies introduce the ads later in a product’s life cycle.
Until today, Snapchat has enabled some public sharing of videos, with users contributing to Stories that can be seen by the whole community. Snapchat has 249 million daily active users across the globe; 90 million in the U.S.