Snapchat now reaches over 500 million monthly active users across the globe with nearly 40 per cent of its community located outside of North America and Europe, the company has announced at its third Snap Partner Summit virtually with a keynote address by co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy.
In India, Snapchat has grown DAU (daily active users) over 100 per cent year-over-year in each of the last five quarters.
Spotlight reaches over 125 million MAU
Snap introduces a range of new tools, workflows and monetisation opportunities to support Creators on the platform.
One of the key announcements is related to its recently launched short video space for creators called Spotlight. Spotlight was launched in November last year and has reached over 125 million monthly active users since. The space was launched in India earlier this year. So far, 5,400 creators have collectively earned more than $130 million dollars through the platform.
It is now rolling out globally, along with a new destination to watch Spotlight content on the web, even without a Snapchat account.
“There, Creators and brands who lean on desktop tools like Final Cut Pro can easily upload content into Spotlight directly from Chrome or Safari, even in high-definition 4k video resolution,” Snap said.
In addition, Snap is expanding the monetisation opportunities available to Creators through a new feature called Gifting.
“When a subscriber sees a Snap that brings delight to their day, they can purchase Snap Tokens to send a Gift, and kick start a conversation with the Snap Stars they love. Snap Stars earns a share of the revenue from Gifts received through Story Replies. Gifting will start to roll out to Snap Stars later this year on Android and iOS,” Snap said.
Separately, it is also rolling out a new editing app for creators called Story Studio. Along with editing tools, the app will also offer insights into trends happening on Snapchat. It is launching later this year on iOS and will be available for free.