Snap to launch its Creator Marketplace in May 2021

According to TechCrunch, at launch, the marketplace will focus on connecting brands and AR creators for AR ads. It will then expand to support all Snap Creators by 2022. The company had previously helped connect its creator community with advertisers through its Snapchat Storytellers programme, which first launched into pilot testing in 2018. However, that programme’s focus was similar to Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager, as it focused on helping businesses find Snap creators who could produce video content. 

Therefore, Snap’s new marketplace has a broader focus in terms of connecting all sorts of creators with the Snap advertising ecosystem, including Lens Creators, Developers and Partners, and then later, Snap’s popular creators with public profiles. 

Furthermore, Snap stated that the Creator Marketplace will open to businesses in May 2021 to help them partner with a select group of AR Creators in Snap’s Lens Network. These creators can help businesses build AR experiences without the need for extensive creative resources, which makes access to Snap’s AR ads more accessible to businesses, including smaller businesses without in-house developer talent. 

Using Lenses has grown more popular, too, the company had noted, saying that more than 180 million people interact with a Snapchat Lens every day – up from 70 million daily active users of Lenses when the Lens Explorer section first launched in the app in 2018. 

Currently, over 200 million Snapchat users interact with augmented reality on a daily basis, on average, out of its 280 million daily users. The majority (over 90%) of its US-based users are 13 to 25-year-olds. In total, users are posting over 5 billion Snaps per day.