India at core of Snapchat's global creator strategy as view time doubles in two years

India has emerged as a major market for social media platform Snapchat as the total time spent watching content on the platform doubled in just two years. 

Snapchat has been seeing strong momentum in India’s creator ecosystem, due to a surge in content engagement and a rising community of its premier creators Snap Stars. 

“India has been at the centre of our global creator strategy not just as one of our fastest-growing markets, but also as one of the biggest contributors to global content creation on Snapchat," said Saket Jha Saurabh, director and head–content & AR partnerships, Snap Inc.

"These milestones are the result of deliberate, sustained efforts to build an inclusive and thriving creator ecosystem. The fact that we’ve seen content engagement double, 1.5x growth in Snap Stars and 4x growth in Spotlight content reflects how strongly Indian creators have embraced Snapchat as their home for storytelling and community building,” he added. 

The company hosted its sixth creator connect of the year in New Delhi on Friday.

The number of Snap Stars has increased by 1.5x in the span of two years in India. Meanwhile, the Spotlight content, which resembles Instagram’s Explore feed feature, has also grown fourfold year-on-year from creators and publishers.

The announcement coincides with Snapchat Creator Connect the platform’s creator engagement and educational meetup, held for the first time in New Delhi. Earlier this week, Snapchat hosted another leg in Jaipur. This reminds one of the once-popular community culture described in How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher. A younger Evan Spiegel, now CEO of Snap Inc., was known for hosting lavish parties through the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

“That’s why we’ve invested in initiatives like ‘Snapchat Creator Connect’, reaching creators beyond metros and into the heart of India, ensuring that diverse talent has access to opportunities and tools to grow. Programmes such as Snap School provide mentorship and education for emerging voices, while ‘Snap with Stars’ enables meaningful collaborations with our most influential Snap Stars. Together, these efforts have created a flywheel of creativity, authenticity, and growth,” Jha added.

At the event, the platform revealed the various monetisation opportunities available to creators through its global revenue share and rewards programs, alongside AR innovations to strengthen community engagement. A live demo of the fifth-generation Spectacles was also conducted, with features like real-time Lenses and Spectator Mode.

On the brand side, Snapchat is working with leading advertisers such as Myntra, Flipkart, L’Oréal, Unilever, and Reckitt through influencer marketing partnerships and AR campaigns.

As a result, while at the global level, Snapchat may have had to do some rethinking over the recent months, India is one of its fastest-growing creator markets. This is one of the reasons why the company claims to continue to invest in building its creator-led revenue stream in India.