• by Colin Kirkland , April 26, 2024

In its first-quarter earnings report, Snap Inc. highlighted the increased interest among its user base in Spotlight, the social media company's TikTok rival.

With President Biden signing legislation that will ban TikTok in the US unless it is sold, Snap's copycat feature might be a popular replacement for some of the US TikTokers.

According to Snap's report, total watch time on Spotlight increased by more than 125% year-over-year, showcasing the potential for Snapchat to take over a portion of TikTok’s major influence in short-form video across the globe if the ByteDance app is forced to sell in the US.

Spotlight appeared in 2020, when much of the world was trapped inside, scrolling through social media feeds on their phones, especially on TikTok. However, when TikTok was banned in India during that year, Snapchat's app downloads doubled in the region, becoming a notable replacement for sharing short-form video.f

Snap also noted that its “Snap Stars” program, which offers exclusive features to high-profile creators, grew by 1,500 approved influencers in the first quarter, which helped generate quarter-over-quarter growth in Spotlight posts as well as Story posts and Stories time spent for Snap Stars across the globe.

In addition, the total time spent watching Stories from Snap Stars grew over 55% year-over-year in North America.&gt

With more highly popular creators posting regularly on the app, Snap could continue to attract a larger audience to its short-form video features.

“I think there's work to be done to make our content experience feel more timely and topical, and then we're spending a lot of focus on the creator journey overall,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in a call with analysts. “That journey from using Snapchat to communicate with 100 friends to growing a following of millions. And really making sure that people are creating great stories or great Spotlight content can be discovered and then grow that following and ultimately build a business over time.”

Spiegel's strategy, however, must take into account the growing success of Instagram's TikTok counterpart Reels, and YouTube's Shorts feature, which would both eat up some of the business leftover from TikTok's potential absence in the US.