Snapchat wants to beef up its creator relationships, original shows, and user-generated content as it looks to compete with TikTok. This week it made several new hires to advance that effort, poaching two employees from its competitor.
Sam Corrao Clanon joined from TikTok as Snapchat's new director of content with a focus on Spotlight videos. Varshini Satish started on Snap's talent-management team, leaving a similar role as a creator partnerships manager at TikTok.
Whether Snapchat will continue to lure new creators to its platform is unknown, particularly after the company ended its $1 million-a-day payout guarantee for Spotlight users. The company said last month that Spotlight has attracted over 125 million monthly active users (TikTok said it had 689 million global users as of July 2020).
Every week, Insider gives a rundown of news on hires, promotions, and other creator company announcements from the past week. Are we missing anything? Let us know.
New hires, promotions, and departures
- Substack hired Nick Spencer, the comic-book writer behind "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Captain America," for its Substack Pro initiative, Insider's Steven Perlberg reported.
- Rebecca Fennelly joined influencer-marketing agency Fanbytes as its new director of brand and communications. Reporting directly to CEO Timothy Armoo, Fennelly will oversee the company's marketing efforts. Fennelly was previously head of brand and communications at digital publisher JOE Media.
- Mike Muney started a new role at the virtual-events platform Moment House as its new head of creator partnerships. Muney said he will focus on partnering with podcasts and creators as the company looks to expand outside of music. He previously held the role of senior partner manager, creators at Spotify.
- Snap poached two employees from TikTok. Sam Corrao Clanon joins Snapchat as its new director of content focused on its short-video feature Spotlight. Clanon previously was head of content strategy and insights on the content programming team at TikTok. Varshini Satish joined Snapchat's talent-management team as a senior associate of talent partnerships. Satish previously worked on TikTok's creator partnership team. Snap's head of original content Sean Mills is slated to leave the company in September, Variety reported.
- Rajni Jacques also joined Snap as its new head of fashion and beauty partnerships. The company said Jacques will help fashion brands build up their presence on Snapchat, including testing out its augmented reality and Bitmoji features. Jacques previously served as fashion director at Condé Nast's Teen Vogue and Allure.
- Facebook's Carolyn Everson announced in a post on the social-media site that she was leaving the company after over 10 years. Insider's Claire Atkinson reports that the platform's longtime ad chief is aiming for a CEO role.
- A3 Artists Agency promoted Emma Clarke to the role of agent in its alternative programming, digital media, licensing and branding division, Deadline reported.
- Eddie Gamarra joined ViacomCBS's Nickelodeon and AwesomenessTV as their new VP of literary affairs with a focus on turning literary content into video programming, Deadline reported.
New talent signings
- Underscore Talent signed TikTok user CelinaSpookyBoo, a creator with 18.5 million followers on the app, Tubefilter reported.
- Esports organization FaZe Clan signed Kalei Renay, a gaming streamer with 388,000 followers on Twitch, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Other creator economy updates
- Dispo, a photo-sharing app that faced a leadership and investor shake-up earlier this year following Insider's investigation into the conduct of its cofounder David Dobrik, confirmed it closed a Series A round with investors Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, Unshackled Ventures, Annie Leibovitz and Raven B. Varona.
- LinkedIn invested in virtual-events startup Hopin, which is valued at $5.65 billion, CNBC reported.
Read previous creator economy updates, here.
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