Since the end of November, the company has maintained a daily $ 1 million pool that pays the creators of the best-performing videos of each day on its short-form video service, Spotlight. The company determines the payment based on the number of views a video gets compared to other highly viewed snapshots.

The move is meant to attract 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 in its latest earnings call, and has more than 175,000 video submissions a day. Meanwhile, the overall app grew to 265 million daily active users globally in its fourth quarter of 2020, from 249 million in the third quarter.

So far, Snap has delivered more than $ 110 million overall in all markets where Spotlight is located. Alberto, 22, is among the company’s latest corporate benefactors.

“I originally did it to get more exposure, I wasn’t really sure how much money was there,” said Alberto, who has worked as a content creator for two years. He recorded a quick video with his girlfriend at dinner one night, posted it, and didn’t give it much thought. Two weeks later, he received a notification that the video had earned him $ 94,000.

“When the first check came from Snap, I thought it was a typo,” he said. Since then, he has been working to post 20-40 videos daily under the name @evanthecardguy where he has 111,000 subscribers. He says that since March 18 he has made about $ 900,000 from his videos, where he does magic tricks, challenges and “basically anything that fits the hype of a game show.”

Alberto said he is using his earnings to search for his first home. He even got a Snapchat ghost logo tattoo on his ankle and of course posted the experience as Spotlight.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity that I am trying to make the most of it,” he said.

Snap Millionaires Club

Alberto is likely to soon join a growing list of content creators who have become millionaires through the social media company. Snap said that “several” users have become millionaires through the club since November 2020.

The company also recently launched 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 of other places, but Snapchat seems to be rekindling,” Alberto said. “People think of Snap as a way to create stories and communicate with friends. I think they are really trying to open the door and have content creators. I think it would be very interesting if they used this moment to make Snapchat a place for influencers. “

The creators say the feature has brought them back to the app and made them want to spend more time on it.

“Spotlight is definitely causing a stir in the community,” said Sarah Callahan, a content creator who goes by the name Sarati. Callahan, a 25-year-old with 725,000 subscribers to the app, told CNBC that she has made $ 1.63 million on the platform so far from her meme and fitness content.

“Spotlight gives a lot of people a voice and allows anyone to do anything with it, but the more you post, the more money you will make with Spotlight,” he said. “All creators are consistent and they do it like a business.”

Callahan, who has been working full-time as a creator since the pandemic slowed her acting jobs, said she tries to post 10 to 50 videos a day to try to optimize cash benefits. (The app will only allow creators to post every five minutes.)

It helps that Snapchat is paying creators a lot more money than other social media platforms, according to four creators. Even for people who have made content creation their full-time job, they get a lot more from Spotlight compared to other individual platforms.

“If you get to TikTok, where we make like 4 cents per 1,000 views, it’s an incredible difference,” said Joey Rogoff, a 21-year-old who posts comedic challenges, pranks and puzzles on Spotlight. So far, he said he has made about $ 1.7 million from Spotlight and has 28,000 subscribers.

The creators know that payments will drop as the app becomes more saturated, and the $ 1 million a day program could be cut at any time. However, they told CNBC that they will continue to use the app once the payments are finalized, as it is another way to reach several thousand people at once and they have already accumulated a following. That could help later in terms of things like brand deals, where a creator could cite a large number of followers on the app and raise fees or work with different brands.

“Where creators are benefiting the most is where creators spend the most time. I think it is very valuable to have that audience on another platform, ”said Rogoff. “I haven’t even qualified for the last two weeks for payment, but I’m still posting as much as I can, just spreading my time across different platforms.”