Snapchat is once again cutting payments for Spotlight content

Snapchat is cutting the cash reward creators can get when they make content for platform rival TikTok — again.

Business Insider reports that the money users who make Spotlight videos now amount to millions of dollars a year. In February, Snap said it was offering millions a month to creators who make high-performing short-form videos for Spotlight. Even that was a drop from when Spotlight first launched in the fall of 2020, and Snap made gaudy promises to pay off 1 million dollars a day for a period of time for people making TikTok-style videos.

Snap spokesperson Farin Jay confirmed the fund has “millions of dollars throughout the year” and said the company is focused on rewarding Spotlight creators in more markets.

Like Business Insider story details, making Spotlight videos was lucrative for content creators — at least for a while. One creator was making between $20,000 and $50,000 a month at one point, until Snap started cutting payments. Another said they earn about $15,000 for 150,000 views on their videos in 2021, but now they get $15 for reaching the same number. Snap also introduced Spotlight Challenges, which pay users when they make hit videos using certain lenses or sounds or performing certain activities.

Although payments to creators are declining, Spotlight still appears to be a priority for the company: In a leaked internal memo from September, CEO Evan Spiegel told staff he wanted 30 percent of Spotlight users every day over the next year.

Many other platforms have tried to cash in on their TikTok-sized problems. To get users to make Instagram Reels, the company at one point paid out $35,000 each as part of a “bonus” program last year. But like Snapchat’s Spotlight fund, creators told the Financial Times those payments were reduced this spring. In 2020, TikTok itself announced a $1 billion fund for creators and later added ad revenue sharing with some creators.

Times are tough right now, even for the still very rich tech platforms, and many are going all-in in their attempts to take over TikTok’s dominance. Snap laid off about 20 percent of its employees this summer, and while it’s far from alone in downsizing, the cuts were deep compared to other tech companies.