At its annual Lens Fest, Snapchat displays the future of creating augmented reality for the platform
Snapchat is promising $750,000 to its top augmented reality stars in 2020, triple its commitment from this year. This pot of cash shows how the company wants to build the future of its high-tech platform on the creativity of these next-generation influencers.
Snapchat executives announced the financial support at its annual Lens Fest, named for the virtual Lenses popularized on the app.
Coinciding with Lens Fest, Snapchat also started selling Spectacles 3, the third version of the digital video glasses that are now open to Lens creators for the first time. The glasses cost $380, and they shoot video using 3D technology that is designed for adding augmented reality effects.
With the new glasses-based creative tools and a growing community of Lens makers, Snapchat is looking to emphasize its augmented reality advantage against powerful rivals like Facebook, which owns Instagram, and Google, which owns YouTube, while staving off challengers like TikTok. The rival platforms are all investing in augmented reality with similar tools for third-party developers, but Snapchat is widely considered to have the most advanced AR technology.
The starting rate for creating a Lens for a brand is typically $10,000, according to Weishaar, but the price varies depending on how often the Lens gets shared and how many people see it, among other factors.
Snapchat paid $250,000 to Lens makers in 2019, but is ready to spend $750,000 in 2020, according to creators. A Snapchat spokeswoman confirmed this figure.
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At its annual Lens Fest, Snapchat displays the future of creating augmented reality for the platform