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Snapchat is committed to helping creatives by equipping them with the tools and resources needed to make their wildest dreams come true. The company has announced its Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund, a grant program curated specifically with emerging, independent artists in mind. The purpose of the new initiative is to not only shine a light on the creatives responsible for setting the trends and defining some of the culture’s hottest moments but to also ensure that they have everything that they need to fund those creative ideas. “We want to support the independent and emerging artist that are driving creation on Snapchat,” said Global Head of Music Partnerships at Snap, Ted Suh, in a company blog post. “By providing meaningful funding and creative support, our goal is for artists to feel empowered to continue creating and pursue a career in music.” The first-of-its-kind program will lace the top Sounds creators with monthly grants of up to $100,000. Artists must be distributing their...
Snap Inc. is introducing its latest efforts to push diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to the forefront with the launch of 523, its first content accelerator program, according to information provided to AfroTech. The goal of 523 is to champion small, minority-owned content companies and creatives. The program counteracts those whose support and resources don’t match the massive influence they bring to the Snapchat community. Courtesy of 523 “The voices of underrepresented groups have long helped shape mainstream culture, yet these creative minds often don’t see the equitable benefits from their impact,” Starr Nathan, 523 Program Manager at Snap Inc., said in a statement. “If you want to make a real change, you have to embed equity in the business. That’s why we are designing tailored workshops, providing funding and helping participants build sustainable businesses.” The fuel behind Snap Inc.’s mission to help build minority-owned content companies and creators is Snapchat’s...
Since its initiation on Feb. 14, 2005, YouTube has taken the world by storm, providing a platform for content creators across the globe. Over the years, the site has served as the blueprint for sharing videos across the Internet for its competitors. Today, the company works to continue to hold the title as the No. 1 place to watch videos, and of course, it’s no secret that the platform dishes out big bucks for its content creators. The platform first began to pay for the content produced in 2007, just a few years shy of its initial launch. Now, Fortune reports that over the past three years, YouTube has dished out $30 billion to its creators. “Our responsibility as a global platform has created this place that works,” said Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, in an interview. And, the company plans to remain true to its original concept with no intention of letting up any time soon.
WhatsApp is introducing a new feature that may look awfully familiar to Snapchat users. The Verge reports that the Facebook-owned messaging app has launched a brand new “View Once” feature on the platform that will allow users to view photos and videos once before they’re deleted. According to WhatsApp, the feature was designed to give users “more control over their privacy” with end-to-end encryption that protects their personal messages. The way the feature works is when sending a photo or video to someone on the app, you can view the media once by tapping the “1” symbol next to the send button. After the recipient opens the message, it will then disappear forever. Now for WhatsApp users this may be a new phenomenon that could potentially grow to be popular on the app. However, for social media users who already subscribe to other popular messaging platforms like Snapchat, this feature is nothing new. WhatsApp’s “View Once” feature is expected to rival that of Snapchat’s stories...
There has been increased attention on how business leaders address diversity , equity, and inclusion in the workplace. After nearly a year since the nation experienced civil unrest, a group of large corporations are banning together to keep the conversation going. Intel , Dell Technologies, Nasdaq, NTT DATA And Snap Inc. have teamed up to formulate a new coalition called the Alliance for Global Inclusion, Intel shared in a recent press release . Dawn Jones, Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO) and vice president of social impact, told AfroTech that the companies formed this coalition to further commit to developing and aligning on shared metrics that track progress in diversity and inclusion. “This isn’t new for Intel – we’ve been growing and expanding our efforts to create more inclusiveness and close critical representation gaps for many years, and as we’ve done so, we realized that our efforts alone are not enough,” Jones told AfroTech. “We connected with...
Social media platforms seem to have had enough of President Trump filling their platforms with hateful content. Both Snapchat and Twitter have recently taken a stance against the president’s ill and misinformative rhetoric. According to a statement reported by NBC News , Snapchat announced it would no longer promote Trump’s content on its Discover section, citing that it will not “amplify voices who incite racial violence.” “We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” Snap spokeswoman Rachel Racusen told The Washington Post . “Racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and we stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality, and justice in America.” Twitter has also taken a stance against Trump’s violence provoking tweets. Recently the social media giant flagged the president’s “when the looting starts the shooting starts” tweet, as it broke the company’s policies on glorified violence. As...
Self-isolation has been a struggle for many, and megawatt movie star Will Smith is sharing his in-house experience with a new Snapchat series, “Will From Home.” Produced by Westbrook Media, the 12-episode series will feature Smith in his garage as he talks with family, celebrity friends and everyday folks who are practicing social distancing, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reports. “Will was feeling a lot of pent-up creative energy and was excited to do something with it in a new and different way,” said Sean Mills, Snapchat’s head of original content. At first, Snapchat’s strategy included increased news coverage of the pandemic. However, after the first week of quarantine , users preferred entertainment, “especially humor and comedy.” Will and the Smith family have dominated social media as of late. While the “Bad Boys” franchise lead has pretty much mastered Instagram with expertly produced content, his wife Jada, daughter Willow and mother-in-law Adrienne “Gammy”...
Multiple Snapchat employees have abused their access to tools that can give them key information about users, according to a Motherboard report . That includes user data like location information, phone numbers, saved Snaps, and more. The abuse began “several years ago,” although Motherboard was unable to provide a more specific timeline than that. In addition, Motherboard couldn’t verify how the data abuse occurred or what employees did with the information they accessed. However, the report did hone in on one particular tool: SnapLion. This tool was designed to help Snapchat respond to law enforcement who’d need user information for court orders or subpoenas. Former employees told Motherboard that SnapLion comes from “LEO,” the acronym for law enforcement officer, and a reference to Leo the Lion. The tool’s existence was never previously reported, but a number of departments have access to it. According to the report, Snap’s “Spam and Abuse,” plus its “Customer Ops,” and security...
Snapchat’s parent company — Snap Inc. — just announced its first Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Mitchell, will lead the company’s global marketing efforts. Mitchell will report to Evan Spiegel, the company’s CEO. “Snap is a great company with strong values, an inspired vision and innovative products that are empowering its global community,” Mitchell said in a statement . “I look forward to helping Evan and Snap continue to tell their story to people around the world.” Mitchell has previously held positions at McDonald’s USA as the vice president of marketing and at Gatorade as head of consumer engagement. “Kenny’s consumer marketing expertise and his deep understanding of our products will be a great combination for Snap,” CEO Evan Spiegel said in a press release. “Throughout his career, Kenny has demonstrated his ability to successfully execute innovative, global marketing campaigns, many of which have leveraged our own vertical video and augmented reality products.” Mitchell’s...
As Generation Z — the group born between 1997-2017 — comes of age, learning more about them is crucial for advertisers and platforms alike. Now, an annual study by Piper Jaffray examining the brand preferences of teens may be able to help. Piper Jaffray surveyed 8,000 teenagers from across the country and found they preferred companies advertised to them through Instagram and Snapchat. Seventy percent of respondents chose Instagram over other platforms for brand engagement. Inversely, 41 percent of teens chose Snapchat as their favorite social media platform, and Instagram as their second favorite at 35 percent. Facebook and Twitter clocked in at 6 percent each as teens’ favorite platforms. It seems Instagram is well aware of its potential. The app recently ramped up its consumer features allowing users to purchase products directly in the app. Last year, Instagram began offering direct links on posts, helping merchants push products through Instagram. Snapchat’s main user base is...
SnapChat may be ready to reveal in-app games in April, according to reporting from Cheddar. The company has been rolling out huge updates including original shows produced by big TV names, augmented reality filters and building out its Discover page. Third-party games have used the platform, but SnapChat’s expected move could prove lucrative for advertisers. SnapChat’s gaming platform is set to have an augmented reality element to it, which emphasizes its November move to connect AR creators with brands. SnapChat has been making incremental steps into the gaming industry. Since the start of 2018, Snap Inc. bought PlayCanvas and invested in Fruit Ninja’s developer Prettygreat. Bigger tech companies like Google are also taking a stab in the gaming industry. Google’s console Yeti is currently in beta and is set to use cloud features to provide games to users. SnapChat’s gaming features may be another way to boost ad revenue streams. The company has already boosted its revenue using...
Snapchat announced the launch of its Creative Partners program helping brands connect with certified AR creators who are experts in using the multimedia messaging app’s AR lenses. The platform already has 30 creators using the Lens Studio—ranging from large advertising agencies to small augmented reality design shops—to create AR lens experiences with plans to increase that number over the next few months. Creators were selected based off their experience developing augmented reality. They were also required to complete a certification course on Snapchat’s development process, ad policies, best practices, and buy models for sponsored AR Lenses, according to Engadget . The company reports over 250,000 lenses have been created through the Lens Studio and have been viewed over 15 billion times.
After losing millions of dollars and users within the past year, SnapChat has launched original shows within the app to reverse its downward spiral. The company lost 3 million daily users last quarter and plans to use the shows gain back its popularity. The Originals will appear up in SnapChat’s Discover page, which have a tab dedicated for the shows. Some of the SnapChat Originals have been produced by the makers of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” and “Friday Night Lights.” SnapChat already has a docuseries centered around viral star Bhad Bhabie, a.k.a. the “cash me outside” girl, a RomCom and a few drama for users to enjoy. The company is also offering an augmented reality feature that lets users experience scenes from the Originals and set them to friends. SnapChat lost $353 million last quarter and will use advertisements in the shows to increase its cash flows. Each show will have two to three, six-second non-skippable commercials sold by SnapChat, the show’s producers or a...
This year, the newly branded Snap Inc. released new versions of their Spectacles and a Snap Map to help you find your friends and events going on around the globe. But their most exciting announcement comes in the form of Yellow, the company’s startup accelerator that aims to uplift people with visions for what mobile storytelling can be. Snap announced that each year they will choose individuals and teams to join their three-month program starting on September 10 where participants will have access to the tools needed to grow their businesses and put their ideas to work. Both established and aspiring storytellers with big ideas should apply to the accelerator. A total of 10 applicants will be accepted in the first go-around of the accelerator. The program will offer $150,000 for equity on “founder-friendly terms,” commercial support and partnerships, mentorship from industry veterans, networking events with other creatives and media luminaries and a creative office space in Venice,...