Snapchat is working to facilitate the use of trending content by developers to directly promote their apps. Today, it launches a set of content creator tools for the Spotlight feature, which allows app developers to enable users to post directly to Spotlight. Meanwhile, Snapchat users can browse content created through those apps and easily navigate to download them.
Snapchat is acquiring more content across the platform while developers are rewarded with additional downloads if the effect or tool they launch gains popularity. Developers can also set up hashtag topics that tag this content, allowing them to track its success, and viewers can see all items created with that effect. Snapchat states that it will not take any commission from developers, even if the app requires purchase to use.
Initial partners include Lightricks, Splice, Powder, and Piñata Farms, among others. All of these apps include creation tools, clearly enabling people to discover the app through the content it helped create—effectively, a real advertisement. Although this is just the beginning for apps using Snapchat as a distributor, it has the potential to generate a significant number of downloads in its own way.
Snapchat is expanding its presence. The app was able to attract between 7 and 9 million users to its platform in 2019 due to widely popular face filters, such as those that made people look like children. The same could happen for an app, which could, in the long term, change the dynamics between developers and traditional app stores.
On a separate note, Snap has announced the launch of its first local and original offerings for Indian content creators. These offerings, produced by digital media management company Qyuki, are primarily targeted at mobile audiences. They were first announced in October 2020 alongside a slate of other exclusive content and Snap Originals. Like all offerings on the app, episodes average three to five minutes and are vertical in full-screen mode.
As of March 2021, the daily active user base of the app in India has grown by over 100 percent each quarter over the past five quarters. Snap states that over 70 million viewers in India watched the offerings last year. India represents the company’s largest market after the United States, and Snap is making every effort to localize the app for its user community in India.
