Latest / Mini Scroll / The Evolution of Snapchat: How a Millennial Teen Messaging App Became a Haven for Cancelled Creators

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The Evolution of Snapchat: How a Millennial Teen Messaging App Became a Haven for Cancelled Creators · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  With summer coming up, we're entering my favorite season of
• 0:03
  all, Margarita season. I love a classic refreshing
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  Margarita on a hot summers day to enjoy at barbecues, picnics
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  and on weekend getaways. For the perfect mark, I use Jose
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  Cuervo, the world's #1 tequila brand.
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  A big thank you to Jose Cuervo for continuing to support the
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  pod and helping us produce content for all of you.
• 0:25
  Time to embrace Margarita season with Jose Cuervo and remember to
• 0:29
  drink responsibly. In January 2022, posts started
• 0:33
  cropping up across Reddit and TikTok questioning why some of
• 0:36
  the internet's biggest creators had suddenly become obsessed
• 0:40
  with Snapchat. These Internet Flu noted that
• 0:43
  huge influencers like David Dobrik, Hannah Stalking, and the
• 0:47
  Demilio sisters had started posting up to 100 times a day on
• 0:52
  the platform, raising suspicions about how the tech giant was
• 0:56
  courting these massive creators and if they were engaged in some
• 1:00
  type of partnership that their audience wasn't aware of.
• 1:03
  As one Reddit user wrote in the David Dobrik subreddit.
• 1:06
  This is just a guess, but it seems pretty obvious to me that
• 1:09
  David has some kind of exclusive partnership with Snapchat to
• 1:12
  only post content there or to significantly limit other
• 1:15
  content. Among all the speculated reasons
• 1:18
  about no vlog and podcast content, it seems to me he might
• 1:21
  have leveraged this into a deal where he's posting almost
• 1:24
  entirely on Snapchat. People know that's the only
• 1:27
  place they're going to get his content these days, which drives
• 1:29
  people to an outdated platform, which is huge money for David
• 1:34
  with very little effort. As this Reddit user mentioned,
• 1:37
  Snapchat had felt like an outdated platform for several
• 1:41
  years by then. Despite solidifying itself as
• 1:44
  the preferred app for millennials to communicate
• 1:46
  throughout their teens and early 20s, Snapchat felt like it was
• 1:49
  left behind amid the rise of the creator economy, but this
• 1:53
  partnership with mainstream creators felt like a play to
• 1:56
  change that. Over the next couple of years,
• 1:58
  Snapchat would prioritize creator satisfaction better than
• 2:02
  most of its competitors. In a bid to draw more big names
• 2:05
  to the app, the company launched a lucrative monetization
• 2:08
  program, encouraged creators to post the easiest content
• 2:12
  possible with no need for high production quality, and invested
• 2:16
  in creator relations through Dedicated, located account
• 2:19
  managers that were accessible via phone call or text.
• 2:22
  Soon, this strategy started to pay off.
• 2:25
  Audiences were flocking to watch their favorite creators on
• 2:27
  Snapchat over YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and the amount of
• 2:31
  time that users spent on creator stories was increasing 10% year
• 2:36
  on year. This is the story of Snapchat,
• 2:39
  how millennials favorite messaging app proved that it
• 2:42
  could compete in the creator economy and find relevance once
• 2:46
  again with the new youngest generation online from
• 2:51
  Centennial World. I'm Lauren Meissner and this is
• 2:53
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 2:57
  economy and how social media is shaping Gen.
• 3:00
  Z Welcome back to Infinite Scroll, everyone.
• 3:03
  I'm really excited to be doing another tech deep dive for you
• 3:06
  guys. The last one was Vine, and I
• 3:09
  feel like the approach that Vine took and the approach that
• 3:12
  Snapchat has been taking recently could not be more
• 3:16
  different. And I think exploring that
• 3:19
  through this episode will be really interesting given kind of
• 3:23
  the context that we have of Vine and why Vine died and looking at
• 3:27
  it through the lens of how Snapchat is doing things
• 3:30
  differently and why they are continually succeeding.
• 3:33
  But before we get into that, Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. It helps me so much.
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  It helps us grow. We are trying to get to 500
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  Spotify reviews by the end of the year.
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  So please go on Spotify, just star rate US.
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  You don't have to, you know, leave a written review.
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  You can just hit the stars. Please sign up to our
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  newsletter, which is also called Infinite Scroll.
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  On Fridays, we round up the five biggest thing pieces from the
• 3:55
  Internet that week and I have one review to read for you guys
• 3:59
  from Apple. It's by Catastrophe Wife in the
• 4:02
  US and they say the best pod ever.
• 4:05
  I usually listen on YouTube. That's where I found Infinite
• 4:07
  Scroll, but had to come to Apple to make a review.
• 4:11
  Thank you. I'm trying to cut back on my
• 4:13
  social media usage. It's been a struggle because of
• 4:16
  my terminal FOMO, but this pod has been such a good way for me
• 4:19
  to stay up to date on pop culture in place of scrolling
• 4:22
  all day. Love love love Oh my God I'm so
• 4:25
  glad. That is my favorite type of
• 4:27
  feedback. A, that the pod helps you guys
• 4:29
  with work, and B, that you guys can spend less time on your
• 4:33
  phone because of the pod. Snapchat was founded in 2011
• 4:41
  thanks to a trio of Stanford University students, Reggie
• 4:45
  Brown, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy.
• 4:47
  It all started with Brown's idea for a messaging app centered
• 4:51
  around disappearing photos. According to an anonymous source
• 4:54
  cited by TechCrunch journalist Ingrid London, the idea came
• 4:58
  about during a conversation with one of Brown's frat brothers
• 5:01
  about sexting. Whether this is exactly what
• 5:04
  sparked the idea for Snapchat or not, the story goes that Brown
• 5:07
  shared the idea with Spiegel, leading to a handshake deal that
• 5:11
  laid the foundation for their partnership.
• 5:13
  Murphy was then brought on to the team as they worked to make
• 5:15
  the concept into a real platform.
• 5:18
  According to court documents cited by the Los Angeles Times,
• 5:21
  the trio divided roles early on. Brown was chief marketing
• 5:25
  officer, Murphy became chief technology officer, and Spiegel
• 5:28
  stepped into the role of chief executive.
• 5:31
  While this may seem all pretty above board, things changed when
• 5:35
  Brown was reportedly pushed out of the company.
• 5:37
  The three spent time over the summer of 2011 working on the
• 5:41
  1st iteration of Snapchat, then called Picaboo, and the app was
• 5:45
  launched in September of that same year.
• 5:48
  However, according to a lawsuit filed by Brown in 2013, soon
• 5:52
  after the platform's launch, the three partners held a
• 5:55
  contentious phone conversation about the startup, Quote,
• 5:58
  Spiegel decided Brown's contribution wasn't measuring
• 6:01
  up, according to Spiegel's deposition, and Spiegel and
• 6:04
  Murphy change the passwords for the startup servers and
• 6:07
  accounts, reports the Los Angeles Times.
• 6:10
  The lawsuit was settled a year later in 2014, with Snapchat
• 6:14
  issuing a statement acknowledging that Brown did
• 6:17
  come up with the concept. The statement declared that,
• 6:19
  quote, Reggie Brown originally came up with the idea of
• 6:22
  creating an application for sending disappearing picture
• 6:25
  messages while he was a student at Stanford University and that
• 6:29
  he, quote, collaborated with Spiegel and Murphy on the
• 6:31
  development of Snapchat during its early and most formative
• 6:34
  days. According to Snaps filing with
• 6:37
  the Securities and Exchange Commission, reported by the Los
• 6:40
  Angeles Times, Brown also settled for $157.5 million.
• 6:46
  The payout was split into two installments, $50 million in
• 6:50
  2014 and $107.5 million in 2016. Despite the rocky start between
• 6:57
  its founders, Snapchat found early success and quickly carved
• 7:00
  out its place in the digital world.
• 7:03
  After its iPhone launch in 2011, the app expanded to Android the
• 7:06
  following year, allowing for a much larger user base.
• 7:10
  Snapchat's early users were documented in the company's
• 7:13
  first blog post in 2012, penned by Spiegel.
• 7:16
  In it, Spiegel revealed that the app's earliest adopters were
• 7:20
  mostly high school students who use Snapchat to communicate
• 7:23
  discreetly. Quote.
• 7:24
  Most of them were high school students who are using Snapchat
• 7:26
  as a new way to pass notes in class.
• 7:29
  Behind the back, photos of teachers and funny faces were
• 7:32
  sent back and forth throughout the day.
• 7:34
  Server data supported this, and we saw peaks of activity during
• 7:37
  the school day and dips on the weekend, the blog post reads.
• 7:41
  According to The Guardian, by June 2013, Snapchat boasted more
• 7:45
  than 5 million daily active users, with 200 million photos
• 7:50
  and videos being shared every single day.
• 7:53
  And this momentum didn't slow. By 2017, the apps daily active
• 7:57
  users had skyrocketed to 166 million, a 36% increase from the
• 8:03
  year prior. However, growth plateaued in the
• 8:06
  late Twenty 10s, with daily active users reaching 191
• 8:10
  million in early 2018 and dipping slightly to 190,000,000
• 8:15
  by 2019. Nevertheless, Snapchat has since
• 8:18
  managed to bounce back. Fast forward to 2024 and the
• 8:22
  platform's resilience is clear, with daily active users climbing
• 8:26
  to 422 million at the start of this year.
• 8:29
  Ultimately, this trajectory underscores Snapchat staying
• 8:32
  power even as a continued and used to navigate the ever
• 8:36
  changing landscape of social media.
• 8:38
  Snapchats enduring success can largely be attributed to its
• 8:42
  continuous innovation and the way it refined how people
• 8:45
  connect online. At its core was the disappearing
• 8:48
  photo, a feature that felt extremely novel when the
• 8:51
  platform first launched. While this functionality sparked
• 8:54
  its fair share of controversy, more on that later, it
• 8:57
  undeniably struck a chord with users.
• 9:00
  For many, these messages became a key way to communicate with
• 9:03
  friends, capturing and sharing moments in real time without the
• 9:07
  pressure of permanence or perfection.
• 9:09
  This in the moment ethos quickly became central to Snapchats
• 9:13
  identity, setting it apart from the competitor platforms at the
• 9:16
  time. As Spiegel wrote in the
• 9:18
  inaugural blog post quote, Snapchat isn't about capturing
• 9:21
  the traditional Kodak moment, it's about communicating with
• 9:24
  the full range of human emotion, not just what appears to be
• 9:28
  pretty or perfect. We're building a photo app that
• 9:30
  doesn't conform to unrealistic notions of beauty or perfection,
• 9:34
  but rather creates a space to be funny, honest, or whatever else
• 9:38
  you might feel like at the moment you take and share a
• 9:40
  snap. Snapchats focus on community
• 9:43
  building, and its identity as a messaging first platform only
• 9:47
  deepened as it rolled out new features.
• 9:50
  Now, we won't dive into every single one.
• 9:52
  Chances are many of you have used Snapchat at one point or
• 9:55
  another and understand how the app works.
• 9:57
  But features like Memories, Geo Filters, Bitmojis, and Streaks
• 10:01
  all added new layers to how users could communicate and
• 10:04
  share their lives. Take Bitmojis, for example.
• 10:08
  Introduced in 2016 after Snapchat acquired Bitstrips,
• 10:12
  these customizable avatars gave users a playful way to represent
• 10:16
  themselves. As Digi Day put it at the time
• 10:19
  quote, the draw for users is twofold and lets them stamp
• 10:23
  their identity on messages and communicate visually.
• 10:26
  That same year, Snapchat also launched Streaks, which
• 10:29
  encouraged friends to exchange Snaps daily.
• 10:31
  This simple yet addictive feature not only drove
• 10:34
  consistent engagement but also helped users stay connected with
• 10:38
  friends in a unique way. These updates may seem small
• 10:41
  individually, but together they helped cement Snapchat as a
• 10:45
  cornerstone of digital socializing.
• 10:47
  Of course, that's not to mention the Snapchat spec Spectacles
• 10:50
  that launched in November 2016. At the time, they seemed a bit
• 10:55
  out there. This was before AI and AR/VR had
• 10:59
  really taken off, but they offered a new way for users to
• 11:02
  engage with the app. The first version of Spectacles
• 11:05
  recorded short 10 second videos in a circular format, which
• 11:09
  could be viewed on Snapchat or exported elsewhere.
• 11:11
  While the product had its issues struggling with broader sales,
• 11:15
  resulting in almost $40 million in unsold inventory, it was
• 11:19
  still a bold move. Few platforms aside from Google
• 11:22
  were experimenting with hardware like this, making Spectacles a
• 11:26
  stand out example of Snapchat's willingness to define itself as
• 11:30
  something beyond a social media platform.
• 11:33
  With Snapchat seeking to strike a balance between innovation,
• 11:36
  connection, and variety, it's not exactly surprising that
• 11:39
  certain tech giants hoped to acquire Snapchat.
• 11:43
  Snapchat got some pretty insane offers from Google and Facebook
• 11:47
  over the years. In 2013, for instance, Snapchat
• 11:50
  reportedly turned down a $3 billion buyout from Facebook,
• 11:55
  according to the Wall Street Journal.
• 11:56
  Spiegel, who was 23 at the time, was reluctant to accept the
• 12:00
  deal. He believed Snapchat's rapid
• 12:02
  growth would lead to more significant buyout opportunities
• 12:05
  down the line, potentially at a higher valuation quote, they
• 12:09
  said. Spiegel is hoping Snapchat's
• 12:11
  numbers of users and messages will grow enough by then to
• 12:14
  justify an even larger valuation, the people briefed on
• 12:18
  the matter said wrote The Wall Street Street Journal.
• 12:21
  Offers would come flowing in just once again three years
• 12:24
  later. In 2016, just a few months
• 12:26
  before Snapchat would officially go public under the trading
• 12:29
  symbol Snap, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly approached Spiegel to
• 12:33
  discuss another potential acquisition, but the CEO once
• 12:36
  again declined. Google also expressed interest
• 12:39
  that same year, holding informal talks with Snapchat.
• 12:42
  Reports suggest the tech giant floated an offer of $30 billion.
• 12:47
  Despite the significant jump in valuation, Spiegel remained firm
• 12:51
  on his decision not to sell the company.
• 12:54
  With Snapchat refusing to budget over the years, it was only a
• 12:57
  matter of time before other social media companies would
• 13:00
  start copying the features that made Snapchat so popular.
• 13:04
  Facebook, for instance, launched Slingshot in 2014.
• 13:08
  According to Ellis Hamburger for The Verge, Slingshot allowed
• 13:11
  users to quote, take a quick photo or video, mark it up with
• 13:15
  some colorful drawings, caption it with big white text, and then
• 13:18
  fire it off to a bunch of friends, which all sounds very
• 13:22
  Snapchat. But there were some differences.
• 13:25
  For instance, users couldn't quote view an incoming shot
• 13:28
  until you send a shot back to the sender.
• 13:31
  Ultimately, Slingshot didn't take off quite like Snapchat,
• 13:34
  and the app shuttered a year after its launch.
• 13:37
  But things really came to a head when Instagram launched Stories
• 13:40
  in 2016, a feature that originated on Snapchat Quote.
• 13:44
  The feature is nearly identical to the central feed in Snapchat,
• 13:48
  which is also called Stories and which has helped supercharged
• 13:51
  the company's growth rate after it was introduced in 2013, Casey
• 13:55
  Newton reported for The Verge at the time.
• 13:57
  Even in an industry where building on other successes is
• 13:59
  the norm, Instagrams copy and paste take on Snapchat Stories
• 14:03
  stands out for its sheer brazenness.
• 14:05
  While other tech companies copied the platform, Snapchat
• 14:09
  was also inspired by successful elements of different popular
• 14:12
  social media apps. In 2017, for instance, the
• 14:16
  platform issued an entire redesign that moved Snapchat
• 14:19
  away from chronological feeds towards algorithms.
• 14:22
  Much like Facebook and Instagram quote, the redesign separates
• 14:26
  the app into two feeds and infuses each of them with
• 14:29
  algorithms. Snapchat is now embracing the
• 14:32
  black box equations that it once shunned, Carrie Flynn wrote for
• 14:36
  Mashable upon the redesign's release.
• 14:38
  The two feeds are starkly different.
• 14:40
  One feed ranks friends primarily based on how often the user
• 14:44
  interacts with them. The other suggests community and
• 14:46
  publisher content primarily based on users interests.
• 14:50
  This approach wasn't necessarily groundbreaking, but it was part
• 14:54
  of what Snapchat needed to stay competitive and connect with the
• 14:57
  growing creator economy. The platform later fine-tuned
• 15:00
  its redesign, seeking to solidify its appeal to
• 15:03
  publishers, influencers, and regular users alike.
• 15:07
  By 2018, Snapchat combined user generated Stories with
• 15:11
  professional content on its Discover page, a feature
• 15:14
  initially introduced in 2015. As Vox reported at the time
• 15:18
  quote, it's possible that putting Stories inside Discover
• 15:21
  is a push to get more people watching publisher content or
• 15:24
  content from celebrities. Snapchat could be luring people
• 15:27
  to the Discover section by putting their friends there.
• 15:30
  Interestingly, Snapchat later reverted the reverse
• 15:33
  chronological order for inbox messages, moving away from the
• 15:37
  algorithm heavy approach of the original redesign.
• 15:39
  This kept the apps focus on real time communication and community
• 15:43
  building while still adapting to the growing creator economy.
• 15:47
  Ultimately, by blending its original messaging format with
• 15:50
  new features for creators and businesses, Snapchat managed to
• 15:54
  stay relevant without losing what made it unique in the 1st
• 15:57
  place. While Snapchat leaned into
• 15:59
  features that kept it popping popular with Gen.
• 16:01
  Z and millennials, the app wasn't without its share of
• 16:04
  controversy. We won't dive into all the
• 16:06
  scandals over the years, but they do offer valuable insight
• 16:10
  into how Snapchat operated and the challenges it has faced
• 16:13
  along the way. Of course, with disappearing
• 16:16
  photos at the core of Snapchat, it's no surprise that
• 16:19
  inappropriate content became a concern.
• 16:21
  This was especially problematic given the app's user base, some
• 16:25
  of whom were minors. While there was plenty of panic
• 16:27
  about teens using the app to share explicit content, studies
• 16:31
  and reporting suggest it wasn't the main reason they use the
• 16:34
  app. For most users, the disappearing
• 16:36
  messages were simply a convenient way to chat and share
• 16:39
  moments without worrying about permanence.
• 16:41
  Nevertheless, Snapchat has faced several instances involving the
• 16:45
  misuse of its disappearing photo feature of the years, leading to
• 16:49
  privacy violations and legal issues.
• 16:51
  In 2013, for example, Montreal police arrested a group of
• 16:55
  teenage boys on child pornography charges for
• 16:59
  circulating explicit images of their girlfriends.
• 17:01
  Reports indicated the boys coaxed their partners into
• 17:04
  taking the photos and sending them via Snapchat.
• 17:07
  Another notable case reported by The Guardian involved a Tumblr
• 17:11
  blog called Snapchat Sluts in 2012, which published topless
• 17:15
  photos of women, claiming they were submitted willingly, but
• 17:18
  this was unable to be confirmed. Around the same time, there was
• 17:22
  also a Facebook page called Snapchat Leaked, which seemingly
• 17:25
  shared saved Snapchat images without users permission.
• 17:29
  Snapchats disappearing photos and messages feature raised
• 17:33
  questions about how these images were still being circulated.
• 17:36
  While screenshots were the most obvious method, third party apps
• 17:39
  also allowed users to bypass Snapchats protections and save
• 17:44
  supposedly disappearing content. These issues led to a 2014
• 17:48
  complaint from the FTC in the United States.
• 17:51
  The FTC accused Snapchat of misleading users about the
• 17:54
  permanence of their content, claiming the company overstated
• 17:58
  promises around disappearing images and messages.
• 18:01
  Additionally, the FTC alleged that Snapchat collected users
• 18:04
  contact information without proper notice or consent and
• 18:08
  failed to secure its Find Friends feature as promised.
• 18:11
  As a result, Snapchat agreed to implement a comprehensive
• 18:15
  privacy program, subject to independent monitoring for 20
• 18:19
  years. Despite efforts to improve
• 18:21
  privacy, Snapchat has continued to face concerns over user data.
• 18:25
  In 2019, reports surfaced that multiple Snap employees had
• 18:29
  allegedly used their access to user data, raising serious
• 18:33
  questions about internal safeguards.
• 18:36
  More recently, features like Snap Map and My AI have sparked
• 18:40
  fresh privacy debates. Snap Map, for example, has faced
• 18:44
  criticism for its potential to enable stalking, while
• 18:47
  Snapchat's AI chatbot has drawn scrutiny over data collection
• 18:51
  practices. Beyond issues around privacy,
• 18:54
  the platform has also been accused of facilitating shady
• 18:57
  exchanges. Last year, for example, the FBI
• 19:00
  and the United States Justice Department questioned the role
• 19:03
  that Snapchat has played in drug dealing as the United States
• 19:06
  deals with a surge of fentanyl related overdoses among young
• 19:10
  people. Though Snapchat has faced
• 19:11
  challenges, its user base has continued to grow along with the
• 19:15
  number of creators engaging with the platform now.
• 19:18
  Snapchat has long been a space for creators and celebrities to
• 19:21
  share more personal content, and in the late 2010's, its
• 19:25
  popularity among celebrities surged.
• 19:27
  Kylie Jenner, known on Snapchat as Kylie's My Nizzle, became one
• 19:32
  of the platform's most prolific users.
• 19:34
  She turned her account into a personal diary and promotional
• 19:37
  tool, sharing everything from Kylie cosmetics, watches and 15
• 19:41
  part makeup tutorials to experimenting with new filters.
• 19:45
  Her approach resonated with fans eager for a look into the lives
• 19:48
  of the rich and famous, solidifying Snapchats appeal as
• 19:52
  a space for authentic and engaging celebrity content.
• 19:55
  It wasn't long before other big name celebrities followed suit.
• 19:58
  Ariana Grande joined Snapchat. But under the handle at
• 20:01
  Moonlight Bay, Justin Bieber became Rick the Sizzler, and
• 20:05
  even Nicki Minaj made headlines when she went viral after being
• 20:09
  bombarded by thousands of fan calls on the app.
• 20:12
  While mainstream celebrities have largely stepped back from
• 20:15
  Snapchat, many influencers are as active as ever on the
• 20:18
  platform. This shift hasn't gone
• 20:20
  unnoticed, with users wondering why influencers would prioritize
• 20:25
  Snapchat over platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
• 20:28
  While part of this may come down to a community building
• 20:31
  component, it also comes down to money.
• 20:33
  Over the past few years, Snapchat has introduced a number
• 20:36
  of schemes to bring creators onto the platform.
• 20:39
  Reportedly, the most lucrative payout program is through
• 20:42
  Snapchat Spotlight, which was first announced four years ago
• 20:46
  as an answer to Tik Tok's rising success.
• 20:48
  Similar to TikTok and other TikTok inspired interfaces like
• 20:52
  Reels, Spotlight is a stream of endless content quote.
• 20:55
  Although the format will be familiar to anyone who's ever
• 20:58
  watched TikTok, Snap says it's made specific decisions based on
• 21:02
  its user base. Ashley Carmen wrote for The
• 21:04
  Verge at the time of the launch. For one, Spotlight Snaps won't
• 21:07
  feature a public comment section, and profiles themselves
• 21:10
  are private by default, so Snapchatters can keep their
• 21:13
  accounts locked while still posting content.
• 21:16
  Upon its rollout, the company announced it would pay out
• 21:19
  Spotlight creators from a pot of $1 million per day.
• 21:23
  Snapchat promised it would continue to pay these awards at
• 21:26
  least through 2020, according to Business Insider.
• 21:30
  Within, several creators had already earned over $1 million
• 21:35
  at the time of the interview, TikTok creators Katie Feeney and
• 21:38
  Joey Rogoff were both on track to hit the $1,000,000 mark,
• 21:42
  while Cam Casey had raked in over $3.5 million.
• 21:47
  With that being said, the introduction of Spotlight put
• 21:50
  Snapchat on the map for creators looking to grow their careers
• 21:53
  and get paid. Quote, the energy goes where the
• 21:56
  money is. I put 100% of my focus into
• 21:59
  Snapchat just because it's where the money is.
• 22:01
  We'd love to see it turn into more of a long term thing like
• 22:04
  TikTok creator fund Cam Casey told the publication.
• 22:08
  But of course, the rate of these payouts couldn't exactly last
• 22:11
  forever. In 2021, the company changed its
• 22:15
  payout structure, rewarding creators 1,000,000 per week,
• 22:18
  down from 1,000,000 per day. They lowered the payment again
• 22:22
  in 2022, announcing the company would be paying creators
• 22:26
  millions per year. Business Insider explored the
• 22:29
  impact of declining Spotlight payouts with stories from
• 22:31
  influencers like Nathan Kessel. He shared that he had been
• 22:34
  earning between 20,000 and $50,000 per month on Spotlight
• 22:39
  in 2021, bringing his total earnings to six figures before
• 22:42
  payouts suddenly stopped in November of that year.
• 22:45
  Though payments resumed in mid 2022, Nathan noted they were
• 22:49
  less consistent, making it harder for creators to rely on
• 22:53
  Spotlight as a stable income source.
• 22:55
  Quote, As a creator, it is absolutely terrifying to go from
• 22:58
  making this kind of money to then absolutely absolutely
• 23:01
  nothing. It will last for some time and
• 23:02
  then all of a sudden it's gone without any kind of notice.
• 23:06
  Though creator payments have decreased significantly since
• 23:09
  2020, Spotlight is reportedly a priority for the company.
• 23:13
  In a leaked internal memo from September 2022, CEO Evan Spiegel
• 23:17
  told staff he wanted 30% of users on Spotlight every single
• 23:21
  day in 2023. According to the memo, the CEO
• 23:25
  argued that encouraging users to engage with Snap Maps and
• 23:28
  Spotlight Quote helps to make our service is more compelling
• 23:31
  for our community, harder to copy and more resilient to
• 23:35
  competition, and increases our monetization opportunity over
• 23:39
  the longer term. While Spotlight definitely has
• 23:41
  appeal for creators, there are other financial opportunities
• 23:45
  that have brought influencers to the platform in recent years,
• 23:49
  one of them being the Snap Stars program that was launched in
• 23:53
  2022. According to the Snapchat
• 23:55
  website, Snap Stars, Quote are public figures or creators who
• 23:59
  bring some of the best and most engaging content to Snapchat.
• 24:02
  But it isn't just a group, it's also the company's advertising
• 24:06
  revenue share program. Although details about Snap
• 24:08
  Stars inner workings remain unclear, it has definitely
• 24:11
  incentivized top creators like David Dobrik and the Demilios to
• 24:15
  create content specifically for Snapchat, signalling to the
• 24:18
  platform's continued appeal even in such a crowded social media
• 24:22
  landscape. Quote Though a representative
• 24:24
  for Snap declined to share the revenue split with Snap Stars, a
• 24:28
  source close to the company says it's a 5050 split.
• 24:31
  Alexandra Sternlich explains for fortune.
• 24:33
  Snap creators are paid in crystals whose exchange rate is
• 24:37
  roughly $1.00 to 10 crystals and can be paid out after a creator
• 24:41
  has earned over 1000 crystals, or $100.
• 24:45
  On top of this, many creators find Snapchat appealing because
• 24:48
  it reduces the opportunity for public scrutiny.
• 24:50
  Influencers like David Dobrik, Austin Mcbroom, and Shane
• 24:54
  Dawson, who have faced significant backlash, are among
• 24:58
  those who have embraced the platform.
• 24:59
  While the finance incentives are undeniable, Snapchat's lack of a
• 25:03
  comment section or timeline like feature helps limit public
• 25:07
  discourse around their posts, making it an enticing option for
• 25:10
  those under fire who also want to continue posting online.
• 25:14
  Think of it almost like a Patreon, but without having to
• 25:17
  ask your audience to pay to support you.
• 25:19
  David Dobrik's pivot to Snapchat came after his public
• 25:22
  cancellation in 2021. If you aren't familiar with
• 25:25
  everything that went down, an expose alleged that David was
• 25:29
  complicit in his long time friend Dom Zeigliadis sexual
• 25:33
  assault of a college student. Around the same time, his former
• 25:36
  collaborator Jeff Whittick began speaking out about a 2020 stunt
• 25:40
  that left him seriously injured. While initially on good terms,
• 25:44
  things soured in early 2022 when David claims the stunt was
• 25:48
  Jeff's idea. A detailed Jeff had reportedly
• 25:51
  asked David to keep private. David explained that he felt
• 25:55
  unfairly blamed and also used his podcast to issue an apology.
• 25:59
  Jeff responded with threats of legal action and later that year
• 26:03
  filed a $10 million lawsuit against David for, quote,
• 26:06
  general negligence and intentional tort.
• 26:09
  Shortly after, David stopped posting to his YouTube channel,
• 26:13
  which boasted over 18,000,000 subscribers at the time, and he
• 26:16
  paused his podcast. Speculation arose among former
• 26:19
  fans that these moves were tied to legal advice surrounding
• 26:23
  Jeff's lawsuit. At the time of recording, David
• 26:25
  has not posted on his main channel since March 2022.
• 26:30
  While he did take a step back from social media, that
• 26:32
  definitely did not include Snapchat.
• 26:35
  David has gone on to embrace the platform entirely, accumulating
• 26:39
  6.8 million followers and posting 80 to 100 times a day.
• 26:44
  As Kaya Yuref notes for The Information, his stories are
• 26:47
  reminiscent of the Vlog Squad era, often featuring him
• 26:50
  alongside his friends doing random activities, whether
• 26:53
  eating food, shopping, or partying.
• 26:55
  David has told reporters that he enjoys posting on Snapchat
• 26:58
  because quote stories are like the raw experience of someone's
• 27:01
  day and it is quote the easiest way of continuing what I was
• 27:05
  doing on YouTube without carrying a ginormous camera in
• 27:08
  my hand. While convenience is a valid
• 27:11
  reason for his shift, Snapchat also offers an environment with
• 27:15
  limited criticism, something far less common on other platforms.
• 27:19
  This lack of public pushback creates a healthier experience
• 27:22
  for creators, but has also inadvertently made Snapchat a
• 27:26
  haven for those who faced cancellation.
• 27:28
  Other controversial figures like Austin Mcbroom of the Ace family
• 27:32
  have found success on Snapchat. Austin currently has 7.7 million
• 27:37
  followers and frequently post videos of his daily life
• 27:40
  chatting to the camera. Over the years, Austin has faced
• 27:43
  serious allegations including accusations of sexual assault,
• 27:47
  cheating, and failing to pay vendors.
• 27:50
  In 2023, he stopped posting on YouTube and shifted his focus to
• 27:54
  Snapchat. Austin has gone viral several
• 27:56
  times. Not always for the best reasons,
• 27:59
  as you might expect, But most recently, after his divorce from
• 28:02
  Catherine Payez, he gained significant attention for his
• 28:05
  Snapchat stories. While social media users
• 28:08
  initially believed Catherine was thriving, especially given
• 28:11
  Austin's history of cheating allegations, Austin's Snapchat
• 28:14
  posts told a different story. After news of their divorce
• 28:18
  broke, Austin flooded Snapchat with content, vlogging about
• 28:22
  random daily activities. His post quickly went viral on
• 28:25
  TikTok, with users turning his meltdowns and strange
• 28:28
  conversations into audios and memes.
• 28:30
  Quote posting over 40 Snapchat stories almost every single day
• 28:34
  since his divorce, Austin Mcbroom has consistently created
• 28:37
  absurd scenarios that have vlogified his life.
• 28:40
  Steven Asarsh writes for Passionfruit.
• 28:42
  Earlier this year, while there was a lot of online discussion
• 28:45
  about the craziness of his content, the structure of
• 28:48
  Snapchat, with its lack of immediate feedback and comment
• 28:51
  sections, allowed Austin to continue posting without facing
• 28:55
  direct criticism. Having said all that, it's
• 28:57
  unclear whether Snapchat intended to become a haven for
• 29:01
  canceled creators, but this decision has inadvertently set
• 29:04
  the platform up for continued success.
• 29:07
  In today's day and age, social media growth hinges on user
• 29:10
  satisfaction and offering creators financial security.
• 29:14
  By tapping into the network of canceled creators, Snapchat has
• 29:18
  a captive market, especially as other platforms are slowly
• 29:21
  embracing de platforming and demonetizing certain creators.
• 29:25
  Snap has acknowledged that historically it hasn't been the
• 29:29
  go to for the creator economy. As Jim Shepherd, director of
• 29:32
  Global talent Partnerships, put it quote, it's sometimes easy
• 29:35
  not to think about us when you're thinking about
• 29:37
  opportunities in the creator economy because the content
• 29:40
  ecosystem on Snapchat is built on top of a camera first
• 29:44
  communication tool. We run a bit under the radar,
• 29:47
  but I think over the last year to two years, we've been quietly
• 29:51
  building a very meaningful ecosystem of creators to build
• 29:55
  their businesses on our platform.
• 29:57
  It's clear Snapchat learned from the mistakes of other social
• 30:00
  media platforms and has prioritized putting creators
• 30:03
  first. This strategy has paid off in
• 30:06
  strides. The app is now more relevant
• 30:08
  than it's been in years, its user base continues to grow, and
• 30:12
  it's becoming the primary social media platform for some of the
• 30:16
  biggest names in the digital space, proving that an outdated
• 30:20
  messaging app could compete in the creator economy and regain
• 30:25
  relevance with a new generation of young social media users.
• 30:30
  Infinite Scroll is a podcast produced, presented and Co
• 30:34
  written by me, Lauren Meisner for Centennial World.
• 30:36
  This episode was researched and written by Annabelle Ben David.
• 30:40
  Editing for this episode is also by me.
• 30:44
  Thank you guys so much for listening.
• 30:45
  I love you guys and I will talk to you next week.
• 30:48
  Bye.