I Won Creator of the Year

Summary

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Podcast Summary: VIEWS with David Dobrik & Jason Nash

Episode: "I Won Creator of the Year" (April 2, 2026)

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Main Theme

This episode centers around David Dobrik winning "Creator of the Year" at Snapchat's inaugural "Snappies" award show. The conversation dives into the evolution of Snapchat as a platform, creator monetization, internet culture, and the behind-the-scenes of social media success. Special guest Jim Shepard, a senior Snapchat exec and liaison to major creators, joins David, Jason Nash, and Natalie for a candid, humorous, and revealing discussion about the creator economy.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Welcoming Jim Shepard and Intro to Snapchat (01:04 - 03:59)

• Jim Shepard, veteran Snapchat executive, recounts his journey from the William Morris mailroom to the entertainment business, to building out Snapchat’s creator team.
  • "I started my career in the William Morris mailroom...and then I went to Snapchat and I went to VidCon in 2017 and hung out with you guys...I was like, this creator thing is real." — Jim Shepard (01:41)
• Jim talks about connecting Snapchat to “the entertainment business” with deals and building out the creator partnerships team.

Notable Moment

• Natalie declares her admiration for Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, sparking a lighthearted digression about his marriage to Miranda Kerr (03:44).

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2. Snapchat’s Impact on Creators and the Industry (03:59 - 08:25)

• The hosts discuss how Snapchat was the first to invent "Stories," attracting creators and celebrities (e.g., DJ Khaled) early on.
  • "Sometimes people forget that Snapchat invented Stories." — Jim Shepard (06:56)
• David shares his own hustles to build a Snapchat following: hijacking theme accounts, cross-promoting via Vine, and quickly amassing over 6 million followers.
  • "I would put my Snapchat at the bottom of it. And I post that video on that theme account about six times a week...which grew my following on snap to over 6 million." — David Dobrik (05:37)
• Jim reflects on how introducing ads and paying creators gave Snapchat a "second act."
  • "I mean, we love a comeback. That was a comeback for us." — Jim Shepard (08:17)

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3. Instagram Copies Stories & Platform Competition (08:25 - 10:38)

• The group discusses the day Instagram copied Stories from Snapchat:
  • "That was a dark day, really. That was a tough day." — Jim Shepard (08:32)
  • Jim emphasizes, “You can copy a product. You can't copy culture.”
• They tackle legal questions about patenting social media formats and conclude that innovation is key, not litigation.

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4. Snapchat as a Messaging Platform and Global Impact (10:38 - 13:08)

• Despite its content features, Snapchat remains primarily a messaging app at heart.
  • "Snapchat opens to the camera and people are coming in first and foremost to talk to their friends..." — Jim Shepard (10:52)
• Jim hits on Snapchat’s staggering reach: “We reach a billion people every month...90% of Gen Z in over 25 countries.” (11:42)
• The group discusses deeper engagement and the uniquely strong uptake in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, where Snap events are "the main event." (12:32)

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5. Disappearing Content, Privacy, and Creator Mental Health (13:08 - 14:36)

• The ephemerality of Snap—disappearing messages and stories—cuts down on social media anxiety.
  • "The disappearing thing is incredible. It's so...no pressure." — David Dobrik (13:57)
  • David introduces the concept of "analysis paralysis" and how Snap helps avoid it.

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6. The Snappies: David Wins Creator of the Year (15:36 - 18:29)

• David discusses his win at the first-ever Snappies, Snapchat's award show.
  • "I got to win, I guess the biggest Award of the night...Creator of the year." — David Dobrik (15:44)
• Behind the curtain: David jokes he "bribed" Jim for the award ($50,000—jokingly), and details his stress about missing people in his speech.
• Jim felt anxiety mid-speech before being acknowledged: "I was creaking in my chair." — Jim Shepard (17:13)
• David reminisces about sitting next to JoJo Siwa and the generational shift ("She's now the age I was when I met her..."). (18:29)

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7. Snapchat Parties, Brand Collaborations, and Event Stories (23:30 - 27:59)

• Details on Snap sponsoring David’s and Natalie’s upcoming "butter yellow" themed birthday party (23:39).
• Discussion around past events: David’s habit of arriving underdressed or late; funny behind-the-scenes of high-profile galas (21:00).
• Security and wild stories about fans sneaking into parties, likening David to Gatsby: "You're like the Great Gatsby...the party guy." — Jim Shepard (27:40)

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8. The Future of Snapchat: Monetization and Creator Tools (28:04 - 41:25)

• Jim lays out new and expanding monetization opportunities:
  • Revenue sharing on Stories and Spotlight (Snap’s TikTok/Reels competitor).
  • Creator subscriptions—fans pay for premium content (rolling out to more creators).
    • "The goal is to make this thing big." — Jim Shepard (36:28)
• Discussion about content moderation, safety, and privacy—especially for minors.
  • "The safety of our community is the most important thing to us..." — Jim Shepard (29:14)
• David probes his own stats, asks who’s the biggest on Snap (Kylie Jenner has the most followers, but David leads in time spent on Stories).
  • "More people are spending more time in your story than probably anyone else." — Jim Shepard (37:13)
• Spotlights' enormous growth (30% YoY), and how design tweaks (making it easier to discover) are in the pipeline.
• David floats the idea of customizable app homepages and special filter-based brand contests (the latter is possible if the right sponsor is found).

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9. Creator Business, Sponsorships & Revenue (44:20 - 46:02)

• Natalie asks how Snapchat actually makes money—ads in stories, chat, and new formats like "Sponsored Snaps" are growing.
  • "Snapchat reaches over 500 million people every day, like a billion people every month..." — Jim Shepard (45:16)
• Jim explains daily and monthly user figures (DAU/MAU), and how brand partnerships are evolving.

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10. Team Banter, Natalie’s (Joking) Snapchat Job Offer (31:44 - 34:43)

• Lighthearted back-and-forth about Natalie possibly leaving David for Snap, her past jobs, and banter about timely message responses.
• The group jokes about roles, money, and who brings in more value (Natalie or David) via subscriptions.

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11. Who’s Really Winning: Creator Dynamics & Monetization Strategy (35:32 - 38:52)

• Jim debates whether Natalie or David could be bigger earners; David says he struggles with putting content behind a paywall.
• The early days of Snap's ad program are recalled—David was one of the first with access, leading to explosive viewership and earnings:
  • "There were stories where I was getting like 6, 7, 8 million views...those were the golden days." — David Dobrik (38:38)
• Now, competition is intense with thousands of creators worldwide.

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12. Multi-Generational Use and App Adoption (46:10 - 47:54)

• The conversation closes lightheartedly about the age and tech savvy of Snap execs, and how even older investors now use group chat in the app.
  • "My whole family is on Snapchat. My parents Snapchat me every single day. They vlog the day." — Natalie (47:36)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "You can copy a product. You can't copy culture." — Jim Shepard (08:40)
• "The disappearing thing is incredible...So no pressure." — David Dobrik (13:57)
• "I just have a tough time, like, separating free content to a paywall." — David Dobrik (35:56)
• "More people are spending more time in your story than probably anyone else." — Jim Shepard (37:13)
• "You're like the Great Gatsby...the party guy." — Jim Shepard (27:40)
• "Congrats to you for Creator of the Year at the Snappies." — Jim Shepard (46:10)
• "My whole family is on Snapchat...they vlog the day; they send it to me." — Natalie (47:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:04 — Show intro, welcoming Jim Shepard of Snapchat
• 03:59 — The rise of Snapchat stories & celebrity influence
• 08:25 — Instagram clones Stories, Snap's response & resilience
• 11:42 — Snap's global dominance among Gen Z and user stats
• 13:57 — The value of ephemeral content & relief from social pressure
• 15:36 — The Snappies: David wins Creator of the Year, speech talk
• 21:00 — Event stories: galas, dress code, and wild party tales
• 28:04 — The future of Snap: monetization, Spotlight, subscriptions
• 35:32 — Creator dynamics: who brings in the revenue, early Snap days
• 44:20 — Snap's business model and new ad formats
• 47:36 — All ages use Snap: family, execs, group chats

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Tone and Language

The episode is filled with typical Dobrik/Nash humor—sarcastic, self-deprecating, and ribbing among friends—while Jim Shepard is candid, personable, and eager to demystify the platform's inner workings. Banter and personal stories ground the discussion, making it both informative and entertaining.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode breaks down what it takes to build a social media juggernaut, both from the creative and executive sides. You’ll hear about the evolution and future of Snapchat, the realities of being a top-tier creator, the anxiety of public recognition, and the community at the heart of internet culture. There’s plenty for tech nerds and fans of the Dobrik extended universe alike.

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End of summary.

Transcript

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[Jim Shepard]

What's up, guys?

[David Dobrik]

Welcome back to Views Today. I am here with Jason.

[Jason Nash]

Nash is back, thank goodness. And unfortunately, Natalie is here and we have a special guest. Jay, you want to introduce him? It's a big deal.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah. This is Jim from Snapchat and he's crushing it.

[David Dobrik]

What? You made it sound like he's 11 years old.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Jim's awesome, by the way. He's always so kind to me. Most people aren't. And he always takes the time to say hello to me. I've talked about your parties. We were just talking shop. I was picking his brain about the industry. Very smart guy. Went to Wesleyan, which I was. We were there yesterday.

[Jim Shepard]

All right, hold on.

[David Dobrik]

Let me set it up again. This is Jim Shepard.

[Jason Nash]

He's an exec at.

[David Dobrik]

You're an executive, right?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess. I mean, I've been there for 11 years. I started my career in the William Morris mailroom. And then I went to CIA and I was in the film business. And then I went to Snapchat and I went to Vidcon in 2017 and I hung out with you guys and I remember when, because like, Jack ready?

[David Dobrik]

Jack Reed, my old manager. Yeah, my man. If I remember. By the way, can I just say so if you watch the vlogs and if you've listened to the pod. My old manager's catchphrase is Jack Reed. Or my old manager's name is Jack Reed and his catchphrase is my man. And he told me, I don't believe this at all. And I confronted him about it. I'm like, I think you lied to me about this story. He was saying that he was, like, buying coffee, and then the cash register person was like, I recognize your voice. Are you the my man guy? And I'm like, there's no way. I'm like, jack, we've mentioned this, like, twice in, like, a podcast and a video. And he goes, I swear to God, he had me say it to him because he knew I was the my man guy.

[Jim Shepard]

No way.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. I don't believe it. Jim. You think he's lying?

[Jim Shepard]

He's a funny guy. He is. He's got a lot of catchphrases.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, but this story specifically, it's gotta be bullshit.

[Jim Shepard]

No, no, it's true. I was at Snapchat, and I, like, my first job there is. I, like, kind of connected Snapchat to the entertainment business. And I did deals with, like, Disney and things like that. And then in 2017, I went to VidCon with you guys and Jack and, like, it was like, the Beatles showed up when you were there and that. I mean, I'm not just, like, glazing you. Like, that was a moment when I was like, this creator thing is real. And then I went to the higher ups at Snap and was like, we need to build this creator team out and really do this. And so now I lead the team that. That works with creators all. Like, I'm all over the world.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, you're like the. You're the creator guy at Snap.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, well, it's.

[David Dobrik]

It's report to Evan.

[Jim Shepard]

Well, I report to the C.F.O. derek, my boss. Shout out Derek.

[Jason Nash]

And then he reports to Evan.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, yeah. Evan Spiegel.

[Jim Shepard]

Evan.

[David Dobrik]

Youngest billionaire ever.

[Jim Shepard]

The best.

[Natalie]

My favorite.

[Jason Nash]

Natalie loves him.

[Natalie]

I love Evan.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's single.

[Natalie]

No, he's married to Miranda Kerr, who's

[David Dobrik]

insanely gorgeous, who's so cool I got

[Jason Nash]

to meet her at a Snapchat event. So sick.

[David Dobrik]

Really?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[Jason Nash]

Evans really got the life.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[Jason Nash]

Evan's got, like.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, Okay.

[David Dobrik]

I mean, I don't. I don't know.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

What did you say to her?

[David Dobrik]

We just.

[Jason Nash]

I talked about how I'm looking for a girlfriend.

[David Dobrik]

Because, I mean, if you're gonna talk to anybody about that, it's a supermodel. Right.

[Jim Shepard]

She might be able to help.

[Jason Nash]

Like, they can help.

[David Dobrik]

And if she knows older supermodels. Right?

[Jason Nash]

They have kids.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

We know you have a monkey.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

So that was my go goal with Miranda. Miranda, if you're listening to this again, it's. You still have time. I'm still super single. But yeah, Evan, great guy. CEO of Snap. Wait, okay, so 2017 VidCon.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah. And then after that, like, that's when we started to get real about having a creator team. And now the content partnerships team that I'm a part of, we. It's. It's like creators, it's celebrities, it's, you know, media companies like the Daily Mail, the Wall Street Journal, sports leagues, like the NFL.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, you guys. You guys rolled out this, like, creator program where creators can get PA right between snaps. And I remember I got onto it quite early, and I remember I was so happy because all my. Okay, so when I was on vine, when I started on vine, there was this guy, Jerome Jar. I think I've talked about this.

[Jason Nash]

He had an incredible Snapchat following, and

[David Dobrik]

he would always post his Snapchat views, and he was always getting like a million views of Snapchat. And. Which is crazy to me at the time, because I was like, he's posting a story and a million people are entertained by this. Like, and I was so jealous because I'm like, there's no likes or anything on Snapchat, so there's no pressure. He could just lily post whatever, and he still gets the satisfaction of, like, people seeing it and him being able to entertain all these people. So I remember me, Zane and Scott,

[Jason Nash]

we were all like, fuck, like, this, this. We should try to. We should try to get bigger on Snap. So every day, like, the thing that I was promoting the most through my vlog and through vine was Snap. And I kind of did it in like, a big. I like, definitely cheated my way to. To pump my snack because I was. I had this one day I had to get in makeup for, like, this little video I was in, and it looked like I got my ass kicked. And I had this. I had this, like. I had this sports account that I used to run or this. This theme account that I used to run on vine. And I made a video, me and the makeup, as my ass kicked. And I was like, I just got my ass beat. The full story's on my Snapchat. And it was six seconds. And I would put my Snapchat at the bottom of it. And I post that video on that theme account about six times a week. So, like, constantly reposting it, which grew my following on snap to over 6 million.

[David Dobrik]

Wow.

[Jason Nash]

And then I use Snap for a little bit. And then when I got more into the vlogs, I stopped using it as much. I would use it to promote my vlogs, and then I really went heavy on it when, like, Jim came around and gave me the call and was like, it's time for you to start snapping away. And I was like, fuck, yeah. I have, like, a following on here. Like, I.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

This is crazy, right?

[David Dobrik]

It was like.

[Jason Nash]

It was like, the luckiest thing ever.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, that's a story that we hear a lot. I mean, Snapchat invented stories, and people sometimes forget that. And in the beginning, like, every celebrity was coming to Snapchat. DJ Khaled, because we were the only ones that had it. And then.

[David Dobrik]

Do you think you did more for DJ Khaled or. Or DJ Khaled more for you?

[Jim Shepard]

Tough question. People. People know him from his snap store, 1000% love. And he would, like, tell them he's going to somewhere, and then, like, his. His, like, fans would come. I mean, that.

[David Dobrik]

I think he skyrocketed, like, Jet Ski sales alone.

[Jim Shepard]

There was. There was a Wall Street Journal article that he got lost at sea, and he documented it on Snapchat. And that was the moment when. When people. People really put us on the map. So maybe he did. He. I mean, look, he did a lot for us, too. It kind of went.

[David Dobrik]

I think it definitely went both ways because I would never know DJ Khaled as the personality. He's just a producer.

[Jason Nash]

Right.

[David Dobrik]

But he's, like, so much more than that now. Yeah, he's like. He's an icon.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah. He's got catchphrases.

[David Dobrik]

He's got catchphrases.

[Jason Nash]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

He's an action figure.

[Jim Shepard]

But then, you know, a lot of other platforms got stories, and then it became harder, and we kind of had this second act when we put ads in stories, which you mentioned, which I'm so proud of, because we started paying creators.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

And they started just vlogging with their phone. And you don't have to get expensive equipment. You don't have to edit long videos.

[David Dobrik]

You.

[Jim Shepard]

You can just be yourself and you can make money with ads and you can post stories. And that's when we started to. I mean, we love a comeback. That. That was a comeback for us.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. That was insanity. What was the Office like when Instagram stole stories from you?

[Jim Shepard]

That was. That was a dark day, really. I mean, that was a tough day.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Is Evan coming in and just being. Everybody? Get the fuck down here.

[Jim Shepard]

I might have just blacked out that day. But look, things. Look, you can copy a product. You can't copy culture. And I think, like, one of the things that we've done a really good job of is Work with creators one on one, have relationships with them, help them. I mean, like, you are one of the most successful people on the platform, which is funny because you're, like, the angriest, too, because you're mad about your views all the time. And then Natalie, like, calls me and she's like, you got to come up to the house. David's mad about you.

[David Dobrik]

David had a bad day.

[Jim Shepard]

So, like, I drive up to the house, like, that's one thing.

[David Dobrik]

That.

[Jim Shepard]

That's one thing. And you're, like, pacing in the backyard, and I've gotta be like, it's okay, it's okay. You're one of the best in the world.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

You still got it.

[Jim Shepard]

And so that's where we've tried to succeed, where I don't think a lot of other platforms do to the extent that we have. So we just kind of dug our way out of it.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Can you sue Instagram for stealing something like that, or.

[Jim Shepard]

No, I'm not a lawyer.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Right.

[Jim Shepard]

The way that I understand it is, is if you're a company that makes running shoes.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

You're going to sell a lot of running shoes if you're the only company making running shoes. But then other companies can make running shoes, too.

[David Dobrik]

Sure.

[Jim Shepard]

And that's just the case. I mean, the underlining code, I think that becomes more of a legal issue.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

But you can't own. You can't own a. I don't.

[Jim Shepard]

I don't believe.

[David Dobrik]

But to Instagram's defense, like, it's kind of a thing now that all these apps do, Right?

[Jim Shepard]

Sure.

[David Dobrik]

Someone innovates and then you adopt.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, I guess I've just. The question was, like, can you own. Can you patent that?

[Jim Shepard]

I don't believe so. I think you just have to focus on what's right for us. And I think, like, you know, we're really proud of that. Stories is a part of the DNA of Snapchat. But I think, like, putting ads in them was, like, step two. That really got a lot of people coming back posting, you know, vlogging.

[David Dobrik]

But other than. Other than the social media posting aspect of it, like, there was like a crazy stat that I read about you guys about. Because you guys are a messaging app at first, right?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Still to this day, you guys are first a messaging app.

[Jim Shepard]

Yep. Snapchat opens to the camera and people are coming in first and foremost to talk to their friends, and then they stumble across your content and, you know, they stay forever. They're blown away. Watch it, watch it.

[David Dobrik]

They're like, this is. This is More than just a messenger watch you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, so that. But.

[Jason Nash]

Yeah, so.

[David Dobrik]

But there was like a stat that was that there are more daily users than like, it was. This was like a couple years ago. So when, like, Twitter was still really popular, it was like more daily users than Twitter, Instagram, TikTok combined or something.

[Jim Shepard]

I remember that stat. I don't know.

[Jason Nash]

Combined.

[Jim Shepard]

Latest version of that is. I know that you. I could start spitting stats and it would be boring. But there are some crazy stats. Like, we reach a billion people.

[David Dobrik]

How often?

[Jim Shepard]

Every month.

[David Dobrik]

Every month you reach a billion people.

[Jim Shepard]

We reach 90% of Gen Z and I think over 25 countries.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Wow.

[Jim Shepard]

So we really have a lock on teen messaging.

[David Dobrik]

Holy fuck.

[Jim Shepard]

And yeah, you know, you know, many of them are making content every day. They're sending snaps every day. It's an engaged audience.

[David Dobrik]

It's really interesting.

[Jim Shepard]

It's a big place.

[David Dobrik]

It's interesting how different stories are in different countries. Like, like when we went to, like, the Middle East.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

The stories there are like someone. It's almost like a livestream.

[Jim Shepard]

Yep.

[David Dobrik]

Like someone will put a phone down. Like how. Like, I'll upload like 90 to 100 frames a day. But there's people in the Middle east that are going above.

[Jim Shepard]

It's wild. 100 sometimes.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

They're posting everything they do. I mean, there is, There is a lot.

[David Dobrik]

And people are engaged with it.

[Jim Shepard]

Like, really, really, really engaged. People in the Middle east love Snapchat.

[David Dobrik]

I mean, is it bigger there than here?

[Jim Shepard]

Um, it's hard to compare. It's. It, it's. It's one of, like, Saudi is one of our best markets, really. And the Gulf is, is. Is really amazing for us. And the creators there are wild, like, when we do events there, like, we do these Snap schools where we bring creators to the office or to like a, like an auditorium, and we teach them best practices of Snapchat. And we've done these Snap schools all over the world. And when we do them in Saudi, it's like the main event. It's really insane. Yeah, we sell them to brands, you know, brands come and sponsor them.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, wow.

[Jim Shepard]

It's pretty wild.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. So it's a huge deal there.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Is that something to do with the way that people are in the Middle East? Like, a little bit more guarded or something? Like maybe not so, like, out there.

[Jim Shepard]

I've, I've talked to our Middle east creators a lot. I've been to Saudi, I think five times now. I've gotten a lot of their Feedback and you know, they say a lot of things that people all like I'm over the world say that they really resonate with the fact that it disappears. Yeah, they resonate the fact that there's not a lot of pressure to have to post this thing and then it's on the Internet forever.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Right.

[Jim Shepard]

I hear a lot that they like the idea that people can't necessarily see who you follow all the time. They feel like they're on stage all the time where people can look through and be like, who do you follow and judge them? Right. And the no likes, the no comments thing really, I think like them resonates.

[David Dobrik]

So the disappearing thing is incredible. Yeah, it's so like, so no pressure where it really is. And that, that I think is like the thing that I complain about the most like on other platforms is I just, I just heard the word analysis paralysis. Yeah, analysis paralysis.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Right.

[David Dobrik]

Like, like it's just like I just start overthinking every video to the point where I'm not posting anymore and like disappearing after 24 hours. Yeah, like I haven't overthought a single thing on Snap to good thing or bad thing? I don't know, Jim.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I haven't put any thought into your platform.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, we've been wanting to talk to you about that. Very evident. You're not overthinking anything.

[Jim Shepard]

You can make the quality just a little higher.

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[David Dobrik]

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[David Dobrik]

We're here because Snap just had an award show. The Snappies. Yes. And I got to win. I guess the biggest Award of the night.

[Jim Shepard]

It was unbelievable.

[David Dobrik]

Creator of the creator of the year.

[Jim Shepard]

I'm so happy that we talked about it.

[David Dobrik]

I'm a champion. Jess, what happened?

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I don't know.

[David Dobrik]

I can't believe I didn't even start it like that.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I didn't even know you were up for anything.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, it was a secret.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

What happened? Were you nervous going in?

[David Dobrik]

Well, well, yes, super nervous. You were, but. Okay. So this is your first annual.

[Jim Shepard]

We've never done this before. We've been wanting to do this for a while since we had the idea. Every other social media platform has done some, like, award show.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

So. So. But. But we finally had ours last night. And David won the biggest award of the night, the bigger of the year.

[David Dobrik]

Only cost me $50,000. I had to slide it into Jim's pocket.

[Jason Nash]

No,

[Jim Shepard]

that's not true.

[David Dobrik]

But yeah, no, it was.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Did you prepare a speech?

[David Dobrik]

Well, the speech actually stressed out Jim.

[Jim Shepard]

His speech ended up being great. But in the beginning, he. He started mentioning all these people that he thanked that were not me. And I'm thinking, like, I'm the one that Natalie calls when David's mad and I have to come up here and it's like, I'm not going to get mentioned. And then at the end, he did dedicate the award to me, and the Hollywood Reporter talked about him dedicating the award to me.

[David Dobrik]

There you go.

[Jim Shepard]

So I was happy. I was happy.

[David Dobrik]

Monica and Brooke were very key components to snap.

[Jason Nash]

And I was, like, thinking parts of the SNAP team. And as I was thinking the other people, I could feel Jim's anxiety.

[Jim Shepard]

I was creaking in my chair.

[David Dobrik]

He was about 40ft away from me,

[Jason Nash]

but I could feel it. I'm like, oh, my God. I don't know how I had this much time to think because I was so nervous on stage. But, like, that is where my head went right away. I was like, jim is nervous right now. I'm not gonna thank him. But yeah.

[David Dobrik]

No. Then I was like. And most importantly, I have to say,

[Jason Nash]

Jim got to rest.

[Jim Shepard]

I thought you had the best speech of the night.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, wow.

[Jim Shepard]

You thanked the SNAP team. You were gracious about everyone. You thanked me. You were nice about Matt Friend, the host. You said nice things about him. My little boy's become a man. He's a gracious, kind human being.

[David Dobrik]

Thanks. Somebody came up to me right after, and they were like, dude, where was the Natalie shout out?

[Natalie]

Oh, yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Came up to Natalie too, and I was like, I was waiting for you to be shouted out. And I Guess he just doesn't care enough.

[Natalie]

Yeah. I was like, oh. I didn't even. Didn't really think about it. But now that you've said it that

[Jim Shepard]

way, what else did you say?

[David Dobrik]

Here's my Shout out, Shout Out Views podcast.

[Natalie]

Nice.

[David Dobrik]

I went into depth. I spoke about the podcast for 45 seconds.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Okay.

[David Dobrik]

No, it was pretty. I don't know. I get so nervous up there.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I would, too. I mean, I can't imagine.

[David Dobrik]

Mark d' Amelio and Heidi d' Amelio gave me the award, which is really cool. Yeah. Because I gave Charlie her Kids Choice Award.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

About five years ago. So it's really cool. And I got to sit next to JoJo Siwa.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Okay.

[David Dobrik]

Which is like, you know, she's. This is a crazy fact. She is now the age I was when I met her.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Right.

[David Dobrik]

How crazy? And I met her, like, seven years ago. Yeah, she's 22. Yeah, I was 22, and I met her like this fucking. And I really resonated with JoJo. We were having a conversation, and she was talking about how she's just like, I'm just tired all the time. Like, she's just like, I just been doing this for so long, and I felt like I was talking to myself. Yeah, it was really crazy. And like. But granted, she's been doing this way longer than me. And then. Yeah, we just talked about how long we've been doing it, and she was like, we were talking about each other's age because we didn't know how old we are. And she's like, I know you're, like, really old, but, like. But, like, you look younger. She's like, you look 30, but I know you're really old. I'm like, well, actually, I'm 29, JoJo, so surprise, surprise, motherfucker. But yeah, no, it was really great talking to her. Yeah. She invited me to go play golf with her. So make her take May. Take her up on that. So that'd be really lit. But, yeah, it was a great night. Jim crushed it.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Who voted?

[David Dobrik]

It was really quick. It was just mad.

[Jim Shepard]

A committee of people that voted. I did not vote. Who was on the committee? People across.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I didn't get to vote.

[Jim Shepard]

Well, next year, if you want. If you want to vote, you can be on the committee next year.

[David Dobrik]

How do you. How do you get into the committee?

[Jim Shepard]

We had a team of people that picked the committee.

[David Dobrik]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Jason Nash]

I haven't thought this far yet, but

[Jim Shepard]

I thought also I thought you looked good. You had a nice. You had a Nice jacket on.

[David Dobrik]

I didn't think I looked good, but I appreciate you saying that.

[Jim Shepard]

You got took it well, it's better than some of the events you've come to.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, well, you said that. You said this when we went to. When we go to our Cannes dinners.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, David and I have been to a lot of Snapchat events.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Okay.

[Jim Shepard]

We do a Cannes lion dinner every year. And basically Cannes lion is a tech conference. It's not a black tie affair, but people dress to impress. They wear like nice linen suits.

[Natalie]

I wear a full length gown like every year.

[Jim Shepard]

I remember the first year we had the dinner. David shows up in parachute pants and a trucker hat. Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

But you know, I think you're supposed to do that as like the creator. You're supposed to be like, hey, there's that idiot. And he's like, you gotta separate yourself from the execs. So the people that wanna stay away know that they should stay away.

[Jim Shepard]

Adam Sandler move.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Dobrik]

I mean, Adam Sandler, like, can do it a lot more. Cause he's Adam Sandler. Yeah, but I don't know. I always like that. I always like when people just like, dress themselves.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

I don't know.

[Jim Shepard]

Or there was the LACMA dinner. Remember the LACMA dinner?

[David Dobrik]

Oh my God.

[Jim Shepard]

So you had your Halloween party on the 31st of October.

[David Dobrik]

The last one are we talking about?

[Jim Shepard]

And then the last LACMA dinner, it was the next night.

[David Dobrik]

Well, it's like a gala, right? This is like hosted by DiCaprio.

[Jim Shepard]

Big deal. Snapchat has a table, everybody's there.

[David Dobrik]

Brian Coogler, like every director, we've talked about this big, big event.

[Jim Shepard]

So I got up that day, I got a haircut. I was like. I was like getting all dressed. I get to the event, it's like 5pm and then Natalie calls me at like 5:15, and she's like, David just woke up and the red carpet had started. And I'm like, what? And to your credit, I think you got there by like 5:45. I got like a collar situation over the jacket on the red carpet.

[David Dobrik]

It wasn't even that I woke up. It was. I had plans to hang out with my friends at around like six, and they were on their way over to my house and then. And then I just had a call and be like, I'm so sorry, guys. Like, I have a dinner. I had no idea. And I was fucking. I completely spaced and forgot. Which was like, it's a crazy thing to have something after Halloween night. But we, we got through It. Well, Natalie, I think at the time was throwing up diarrhea. One of the classic.

[Natalie]

I was severely hungover from our Halloween party, but we made it.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

Well, you stepped it up for the Snappies.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. I was like, no more of this. I got there early. I was ready to go.

[Jim Shepard]

You did great.

[David Dobrik]

Thank you. Well, thanks.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

What did you think when they called your name?

[David Dobrik]

I was like, I just blacked out. I was just like. I don't know. Every time, like, a moment like, that happens, I'm like, I can't wait for it to be over. Yeah. Like, there's like. And the best part was when. When I said goodbye on stage. Yeah. And then, like, Mark, like, you know. You know, like, when you're. When you're on a ward show, like, the person that gives you the. Or, like, wraps her hand around you to, like, lead you out of the place. Yeah. I was like, here's the hand of, like, God, like, rescuing me. Like, that's the best part. It's like when. It's like when they're ushering you off stage, it's like, you've done it. You don't have to be scared anymore.

[Jim Shepard]

I thought it was a fun room because it was so many people that love Snapchat, and I heard some people being like, oh, they're. There should be more celebrities there. And I'm like, that's not the goal. The goal is not to, like. To like, make this the Vanny Fair Oscar party. The goal that we had was to celebrate the creators that love Snapchat.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

That's nice.

[Jim Shepard]

And I think we did that, and I think it felt like a community. And it was David speaking to a room of people who watch his stories and are on Snapchat actually, and, like, understand what he's done on this platform. So I thought that was cool.

[David Dobrik]

And now we're so tight that you guys are coming to sponsor my birthday, which is gonna be so exciting.

[Natalie]

So exciting.

[David Dobrik]

Snapchat is the one thing they do really good other than, you know, just the app stuff is they're. They're really good at putting on events and just, like, looking clean. I also think that, like, the logo just looks so clean. The yellow, it just looks really nice and fun. And they're a. They're a big, big sponsor at the birthday party this year.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Really?

[Jason Nash]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Can you reveal?

[David Dobrik]

I don't even know what to reveal.

[Natalie]

It's kind of my birthday party at the same time that it's.

[David Dobrik]

Wait, what is the theme?

[Natalie]

The theme is a summer soiree it's butter. Yellow is the color, which is perfect for Snap.

[Jim Shepard]

Perfect.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, it's like Cannes.

[Natalie]

It's like a south of France. So lots of yellows, lots of tans and whites. It's gonna be gorgeous. Jason, really. Or gists.

[David Dobrik]

Musical performers, they are coming. I have one performer that I've wanted for the last.

[Natalie]

Ever since we started throwing parties, he's been saying, I need this performer. And this performer has not been able to commit for the past, like, three, four years we've been doing these events,

[David Dobrik]

and now they're down, but it's too far out. Yeah, it's too far out to, like, assume they're down.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, Right. I'm trying to think who it could be.

[David Dobrik]

Can I say no? Because I'm just gonna jinx it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you guys, I can tell you, you can just cut it out.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah, Yeah. I think that'd be really cool.

[Jim Shepard]

That's amazing.

[David Dobrik]

And I mean, just not to give it a. Give it too much away, but, like, a band. A band playing in the backyard is the best. Like, with the drums, with everything.

[Jim Shepard]

The last party that I came to, I left at, like, 10:30 because I needed to get to bed, and I was going down in the golf cart, and there was these two guys in the golf cart with me that tried to get in, and they couldn't, and they were from Australia. They told me, and they. Someone DM'd them that they could get them into David Dobrik's party. So they came all the way from Australia, and. And then they were asking me, like, what I do. I was, like, not telling them, but I just think it's hilarious that people come from all over the world and stand outside your house and they want. I mean, you've developed this brand that's really crazy. Best parties in Los Angeles. So we're really excited to be a part of it. I think that, you know, we're good at photo booths, so I think we're really excited to do that. And the team at Snapchat is like, they know about your parties, and they're so excited to work with you.

[David Dobrik]

That's going to be really fun. So what other party experiences have you? Oh, my favorite is you came with Jack Reed once. We did, and you're like, I'm never going with Jack again.

[Jim Shepard]

Jack's getting a lot of play right now.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, he showed up. He showed up. He showed up with my old manager, Jack Reed, my man again.

[Jim Shepard]

He likes to come up, like, fashionably late, and I need to get here

[David Dobrik]

early, which is not the thing to do, at least, because the door gets so stressful. Like, get here.

[Jason Nash]

Get here right when it opens.

[Jim Shepard]

That's not my vibe.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I want to be here, like, being here early, too.

[David Dobrik]

The gym was stuck outside for way too long.

[Jim Shepard]

Next year, there's got to be, like, a VIP entrance above the hill or something.

[Jason Nash]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

I mean, technically, it's all vip, because.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, I'm just going to get here early next time.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

You come up to the house a lot, carve yourself a path through the neighbor's house and.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, I know. Or.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

Or literally, gym entrance.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. I mean, a lot of my friends get there, like, two hours before, and they're just like.

[Natalie]

Just hang out.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. Or, like, help. You even help set up. There was this one guy that came that we didn't know that came to the house. Walked into the house, like, seven hours before.

[Natalie]

Oh, my gosh.

[David Dobrik]

And he was like, I'm. He went up to each of us and, like, to Natalie, he'd go, hey, I'm here, David. David called me to help set up, which I would never do. And then he went up to me and was like, hey, I'm here because Brooke called me to help set up. And he, like, threw our names to each of us to make it seem like he was there to help set up for the party. I was very suspicious, and he was like, if you guys don't need me, I'll just be back later. And that was his way of, like, sneaking in. We were like, whoa, this is fucking terrifying. It was really, really scary. It's such, like, a silly way to try to sneak in. It just doesn't even make any sense.

[Jim Shepard]

Insane.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. Like, it's like, this isn't 1991. Like, you're gonna have to come up with a way better plan for that.

[Jim Shepard]

You're like the Great Gatsby, everybody.

[David Dobrik]

No, no, no.

[Jim Shepard]

You're like the party guy.

[David Dobrik]

It's not that. It's. It's just, like, us. It's. It's not like that. Oh, it's a bird. It's not that crazy.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

It's a good party.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

It's just a good, good, good way

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

to spend the night.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. It's a good way to spend the night. It's not fucking Vanity Fair Oscars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Just a really good party.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

It's like the Snappies.

[David Dobrik]

It's. Nothing can be as good as this.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

What do you think about. What do you think about Like Snapchat, like the future of like, media and all that. And like we were, we were talking before about how you, you know, Hollywood's kind of dead and.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're really excited about the stories, revenue share. That's been a huge success. I mean, we're really excited about Spotlight growth, which is like our version of like short form video.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah. Like reels.

[Jim Shepard]

And there's so many stats that that's grown tremendously. I've noticed that David's been posting more on Spotlight.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

And then we just launched creator subscriptions where fans can pay for content.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Right.

[Jim Shepard]

And that's another huge business. And so I don't know how I

[David Dobrik]

feel about like showing my ass. I'm going to have to do it.

[Jim Shepard]

You could, you could figure out other things to show.

[David Dobrik]

No, no, it's, it's a pg, right?

[Jim Shepard]

It is moderated. The same as the rest of the app.

[David Dobrik]

Moderated.

[Jim Shepard]

So. Yeah. Yeah. So the idea is that it's, it's not.

[David Dobrik]

This is a classic Snapchat question. Like, obviously, like when I was 16, 15, like, let's not beat around the bush. We all use Snapchat, you know, to talk to people we liked.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

How closely moderated are those pictures?

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I mean,

[David Dobrik]

are they stored anywhere?

[Jim Shepard]

The media trained executive in me wants to say to you right now, we've seen them. That the safety of our community is the most important thing to us and we take these things very seriously. All of those things are true. What I would also say though is that I think we spend a lot more time thinking about what we're pushing to people in content that they don't follow and making absolutely sure that that's safe and then I think angling more towards value and privacy when it comes to like you snapping with your friend. However, when it comes to minors and it comes to people that could be in danger, we're very serious about making sure kids are safe.

[David Dobrik]

That's true.

[Jim Shepard]

Like, we've made it really hard for kids to talk to people that don't follow them or they are not friends or talk to people that you don't know. Like, there's a family center now where your parents can get involved. So like, when it comes to kids, we're really, really careful when it comes to adults.

[David Dobrik]

When I was most promiscuous, I was a kid. So I'm glad you guys got my back.

[Jim Shepard]

It's not just about promiscuous. It's about keeping kids safe and making sure that kids aren't like, you know, you know, getting messages from people trying to do, you know, like illegal things. That's where we really are trying to be safe.

[David Dobrik]

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[Jim Shepard]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

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of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] so I have a question.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Natalie]

Are you hiring at snap?

[Jim Shepard]

Because I think you want a job

[David Dobrik]

because you're sick of David.

[Natalie]

I think my role here is evolving to other places.

[David Dobrik]

You'd still have to deal with me.

[Natalie]

That's true.

[Jim Shepard]

I'm probably leaving you.

[Natalie]

I'm ready to go. Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

You're leaving?

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

I'll go with you.

[Natalie]

Okay, great. We need two roles, Jim.

[Jim Shepard]

Wow, this is breaking news.

[David Dobrik]

I didn't even know about this.

[Natalie]

He doesn't even care.

[Jim Shepard]

We're breaking news on the podcast. What happened?

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Did you guys have a fight?

[David Dobrik]

She could never leave. Also, can I just say, you got to stop doing the not responding to me at after like 8pm first of

[Natalie]

all, it was 11pm he blows up my phone.

[David Dobrik]

It's not 11pm I'm here all day.

[Natalie]

Guess who decided to take a nap all day yesterday while I was here?

[David Dobrik]

You know why I took a nap all day? Because I was told we were watching Lord of the rings at 7pm so yes, at 4 I was like, gotta buckle down because it's going to be a bumpy night. So I took a nap and then When I woke up, guess who's Ferrari here starting up in the driveway? Natalie's. And I'm like, oh, so we're not watching Lord of the Rings anymore. So, yeah, I took a nap, honestly, for the sake of friendship, because I thought we were all gonna get together and fucking watch.

[Natalie]

No, no, I'm sorry.

[David Dobrik]

And then I texted her, like, look at all the blue messages. I texted her, oh my God.

[Natalie]

Yeah, he does this when I'm leaving.

[David Dobrik]

When I'm 7:19pm okay, the messages go from 7:30, 7:54, 7:54, 8o, 7 8o, 9, 1104, 1:12, 1:12, 1: 12am but like, like the once before 10pm you gotta respond to.

[Natalie]

I know, it's just yesterday I was like, you know what, I'm going home today and I'm putting my phone down.

[David Dobrik]

But it's just like, can you at least call me and just be like, hey?

[Jason Nash]

I'm like, that's not. It's not. It's not fair.

[Natalie]

No, it is fair.

[David Dobrik]

No, it's not.

[Natalie]

I'm with you all the time.

[David Dobrik]

But like, you know that I get

[Jason Nash]

most of my work done at night.

[Natalie]

That sounds like a really big personal problem.

[David Dobrik]

No, sounds like a personal problem.

[Natalie]

I responded the next morning. I was.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

You'll be nervous, Jim. They do this all the time.

[Jim Shepard]

So I will be taking Natalie back to the office where she's going to work at a.

[David Dobrik]

Shut the up.

[Jim Shepard]

There is a seat in my car.

[Natalie]

In my. In my old age, as I get older, I need some more stability in my career, you know, And I don't know if this is giving it to me anymore.

[David Dobrik]

Natalie had to sit premium economy for a flight somewhere and she goes, my old job used to fly me private. I'm like, when you were, when you

[Jason Nash]

were a nanny and you.

[David Dobrik]

I love that they flew you 20 minutes to go to Six Flags with a kid. That was completely different.

[Natalie]

Yeah, that did happen.

[David Dobrik]

So Natalie has.

[Natalie]

Jim is so checked out. He's like, what are these people saying?

[Jim Shepard]

We're hiring Natalie. She's coming back to the office.

[David Dobrik]

What would she be good for there, you think?

[Jim Shepard]

I mean, I've known Natalie for 10 years. I've worked with Natalie a lot. We've talked about how to deal with you. I trust you.

[Jason Nash]

You guys have comma bonded.

[Jim Shepard]

And we will find something for Natalie to do. Trust me, there's lots of work it to go around.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Thank God for David. That's how Natalie has her best relationships with people.

[David Dobrik]

See? There we go.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah. Like, I love Natalie because you're so difficult.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

That's why.

[Jim Shepard]

Although. Although every time she calls me, she wants money. She's always asking you for money.

[David Dobrik]

I know, I know.

[Natalie]

That's my job.

[David Dobrik]

I asked.

[Jim Shepard]

She is a good manager. She's a good manager in that. In that because. Because you need money. You got a lot going on here. You have a lot of people to pay.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah, I'll call Jim. Like when? Like, like views are down for the day. And I'll be like, jim, dude, like, I have a mortgage and you've got

[Jim Shepard]

people on laptops out there doing nothing. You got a lot happening.

[David Dobrik]

Taylor and John, what the fuck are they doing? Taylor's on her laptop five hours a day. I feel like, Taylor, what are you doing?

[Jim Shepard]

I don't think you pay her enough. You need to pay Taylor. She does everything. She's organizing your life. She's unboxing Amazon packages. You're throwing ping pong balls at her face. She's in the Snapchat stories.

[David Dobrik]

That's true. I mean, I think, I think Taylor's paid perfectly, but yeah, I think Taylor does a lot more than meets the eye. I mean, Taylor's like number one personality hire of all time.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Who would make more money in a subscription based thing? Natalie or David?

[Jim Shepard]

Natalie.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Really?

[Natalie]

Sucker.

[David Dobrik]

Bullshit.

[Jim Shepard]

I don't know that David would commit. No, look, I think David could be amazing at this. I think you would have to be like, what is the utility that my fans are gonna gain from subscribing to me? And I think if you figure that out. Look, look, we all know David has a nose for money, so I think he can figure it out.

[David Dobrik]

I just have a tough time, like, separating free content to a paywall. Yeah. Like, it's like, how am I gonna step up? Like, what am I gonna do where people feel comfort? I don't know. I've never done that.

[Natalie]

You could get that six pack back

[David Dobrik]

and then Natalie, work that a little bit. For the love of God, no one wants to see my six pack.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Can anyone join? Get a subscriber thing.

[Jim Shepard]

So you have to be right now. We've been rolling it out slowly and the goal is to get it to as many of our sn. SNAP Stars is what we call, like verified creators.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Got it.

[Jim Shepard]

We want to, like, roll it out responsibly so we just don't flood the system. But everyone in the US has access to be able to subscribe right now. Got it. So, so, so the goal is to make this thing big.

[David Dobrik]

Jim, who's the biggest on Snap?

[Jim Shepard]

Well, people ask Me, this a lot. People ask me if. If David Dobrik is the biggest person on Snap. And I always say, like, define biggest. Like, we don't have the most followers. Sorry, you don't have the most followers, but you have a lot of followers. You have like 6 million plus.

[David Dobrik]

Well, who's the most followers?

[Jim Shepard]

Oh, Kylie, I think Kylie Jenner is. But you have consistently, I think, been the most successful on Snap. You. I mean the game on Snapchat.

[David Dobrik]

When I say most successful, do you mean number one or number two? Three, four.

[Jim Shepard]

But there's lots of number ones in different categories. What you are the number one in is you've probably driven the most time spent in your story the last five plus years. And so most people. More people are spending more time in your story than probably anyone else. I mean, you're at the very top. And so people love seeing your daily life with your friends. And you're one of the most successful creators on the platform. Which is hilarious to me how you always complain about views. But that's another story.

[David Dobrik]

Well, that's because I'm going to release some secret information here. When I first got onto the program. Yeah. When I first, like, got back into snap.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

I was one of the first ones to hop on. So I think I was. I was most of the people. And I wasn't vlogging also at the time, so I think people could only find me on snap.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

So people were finding me on snap. And the amount of views I was getting was, like, unfathomable. Like, there were stories where I was getting like 6, 7, 8 million views. Yeah. And I'm talking like, like clicks in. Like. I'm not talking like, like the overall number for the day will read like 3,400 million views because it'll combine all your views from all your stories. But, like, the. The actual big number would be like 7, 8 million, which was great. Like, individual people were just fucking unfathomable. Especially because, you know, my goal was always a million.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

Jerome. But yeah, that was like. That was like real prime time Snap. That was like when I got on early. I mean, look, those were the golden days.

[Jim Shepard]

We.

[David Dobrik]

But it's still incredible. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

What's the most you made one month on Snap?

[David Dobrik]

Oh, I don't know.

[Natalie]

I don't know either.

[David Dobrik]

I don't want to say.

[Natalie]

You would know better than me.

[David Dobrik]

I don't want to say. Jim always.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Does Jim know?

[David Dobrik]

Jim's always like, go ahead and say.

[Jim Shepard]

I mean, I could Find out. We, we rolled out the, the ads to creators slowly to make sure that it again was like, responsible. And then there was a time when like, David was one of the only people that had it. And like that, that's when he did really well.

[David Dobrik]

Only person to have this ad program. And then about maybe like 20 others.

[Jim Shepard]

And then to his credit, a lot of creators wanted to do what he's doing. And now there's like thousands of, you know, creators all over the world.

[Jason Nash]

How many?

[David Dobrik]

How many would you say? Like over 5,000?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, there's thousands of people all over the world that have this.

[David Dobrik]

Wow.

[Jim Shepard]

And so there's more competition. And then the other thing. And this is like Internet philosophy, but like Stories is a great format for when you follow someone and you want to see everything they did today. It's not a great format to discover content. And people are voting with their time and they're voting for short form video. And there was a stat that I heard today that people who post a Spotlight every day grow their audience 10 times faster.

[David Dobrik]

Spotlight is a. Like the Instagram reels. Like it's reels.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah. And so I think the combination of Spotlight to have more people find you.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

And then stories for the people who really care about you and want to see everything you did today, I think that's the combination that we get really excited about.

[David Dobrik]

How many people are on Spotlight a day, would you say?

[Jim Shepard]

I don't have the numbers offhand, but it's grown. I think the stat, one of the stats we released is it's grown 30% year over year.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, wow.

[Jim Shepard]

So and the other thing is, think about Snapchat. It opens to the camera and then you go over and there's the Stories page and then you go over and there's Spotlight. So there's a design issue in just fewer people are gonna go to that last page.

[David Dobrik]

Yeah. Like, TikTok opens to Spotlight, to the Reels.

[Jim Shepard]

It opens to TikTok and we have all these pages. And so one of the things that we've really focused on is getting more people quicker into Spotlight and moving Spotlight more front and center in the app. And I think when we do that, more and more people will find David through Spotlight. They'll follow him, given the numbers that show that that's true. And then when they follow him, they're gonna see his stories every day. And then if you wanna do like, I'm creator subscriptions, you can do that and they can pay. So I think like the ability to find you and then like, really do a deep dive and see the six pack. I think that's what we're kind of looking for.

[David Dobrik]

Why don't you guys. I mean, this probably wouldn't work. You've obviously thought of it, but, like, why would you guys not give the crew, the person that's using the phone, the option of what it opens to so you can customize it?

[Jim Shepard]

That's an idea that's come up. It starts to get complicated when everyone in the world's apps look different.

[David Dobrik]

Okay.

[Jim Shepard]

But we have thought about different places in the world. For instance, like India, they love short form video.

[David Dobrik]

And so that would make sense for

[Jim Shepard]

it to open thinking about different places and how it could be different. I think that's definitely something that we've thought about.

[David Dobrik]

The one idea I had and I wish we got to do this is. Oh, wow. Jonah just got followed by Mark Wahlberg. That's kind of cool.

[Jim Shepard]

Breaking news.

[David Dobrik]

Jonah just texted me. These a listers are coming for your fat, funny friend you discovered. Breaking news. Mark Wahlberg is all in on Jonah.

[Jason Nash]

The one thing I really wish I could do with you guys, that like, could have been like a legal issue.

[David Dobrik]

I don't know what it was, but

[Jason Nash]

I really want to do like a filter that is sponsored by a brand and everyone in the world can play it. It's like a wheel of fortune or something. And only one or ten people win it a day. And like One person gets $10,000 a day and you're like filming yourself and it spins. You get one spin a day. Everyone in the world gets one spin a day. And then one person wins and the reaction's captured and they could post on other social medias and the brand gets crazy awareness because everybody's playing it. I feel like that'd be so fun.

[Natalie]

Cool.

[Jason Nash]

And I wish we got to.

[Jim Shepard]

I think we could figure it out. We would just.

[Jason Nash]

You said that three years ago.

[Jim Shepard]

We just need to find the right brand. We need to find the right brand.

[David Dobrik]

Really?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah. That's the key. And I think like brand deals and creators working with brands is something that we're trying.

[Jason Nash]

That's a really expensive thing for a brand because I feel like they're going to get. So they're probably going to get 100 million people looking at this thing a day. Like, it's going to be crazy.

[Jim Shepard]

I mean, where most of our efforts are is on the other end with which is like what brands tell us all the time is that they want to just find creators that are. Are already organically mentioning their product, find that content, and then turn that into paid media, turn it into, like, an ad. And so we're really building out the tools to do that. So, for instance, if you tagged a brand that you don't necessarily work with, they could then find that piece of content and they could put paid media, like, against that content. So we're trying to do that at scale. What you're talking about is, like, a special circumstance that's not gonna happen for everyone. It's gonna happen for you and a brand that really loves working with you. And then, like, let's get the folks on our sales team that work with that brand and figure out how we can do it.

[Jason Nash]

If you actually think it's possible.

[Jim Shepard]

I do.

[Jason Nash]

Okay. Then we can totally do it with this brand I have in mind.

[Jim Shepard]

All right, let's talk about it.

[Jason Nash]

It could obliterate Jim. It will do.

[Jim Shepard]

So we're making deals on the podcast right now.

[David Dobrik]

Okay, let's do it.

[Jason Nash]

Okay.

[Jim Shepard]

I want commission. I don't know if that's allowed, but.

[Jason Nash]

No, it's illegal.

[David Dobrik]

Sorry, brother.

[Jason Nash]

You're just going to have to sit there and enjoy the. You're just gonna get to use a filter first.

[Natalie]

How about that?

[David Dobrik]

That's what I want.

[Natalie]

I have a question. How does Snapchat. I mean, I know now that you have, like, the monetization program and there's ads that are slotted in, but, like, how does Snapchat actually make money?

[Jim Shepard]

We make money in a lot of ways, but, like, when. When. When brands buy ads on Snapchat and they run in public content, we get a share of that.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Jim Shepard]

So we make money that way.

[David Dobrik]

Also, ads will pop up in your messages.

[Jim Shepard]

That's new.

[Natalie]

Thank you, David.

[Jim Shepard]

You should work, like, maybe we can hire both of you.

[Jason Nash]

You don't need her.

[Jim Shepard]

Sponsored. Sponsored. Snaps is our newest ad format. And brands can basically send, like, direct chats. And the engagement has been insane. And in certain. Certain circumstances, like, Calvin Harris sent the Snap, and it was his. His, like a record label doing the ad for his album. But when people saw Calvin Harris in their chat feed, they were like, I'm opening that.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[David Dobrik]

And so how many people does that reach?

[Jim Shepard]

I don't remember offhand what that reached, but you have to imagine, like, you know, Snapchat reaches over 500 million people every day, like a billion people every month. And then the number one reason they're coming is the camera and chat. And so when brands show up in the chat page, like, it's super powerful.

[David Dobrik]

Sorry, you just said 500 million a day. A billion a month, you're saying unique, like viewers?

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, I think so.

[David Dobrik]

Like, a lot of those 500 are repeating throughout every day.

[Jim Shepard]

These stats change constantly. But I think the latest is, is that we reach. There's tech terms, there's DAU, and there's MAU. DAU is daily active users, of course. Right. So that's like, people that are coming every day, and we're at, like, 500 million when you go to MAU. So monthly active users, we're more like a billion. So it's a lot of people.

[David Dobrik]

Wow. Well, Jim, congrats on starting Snapchat and taking it so far. Thank you for joining us on the Views podcast.

[Jim Shepard]

And congrats to you for Creator of the Year at the Snappies.

[David Dobrik]

And on the trophy. There's no year or anything.

[Jim Shepard]

Oh, that's a good.

[David Dobrik]

No, no, I love it.

[Jim Shepard]

What does it say?

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Let's say your name.

[David Dobrik]

It just says Creator of the Year, David Dobrik.

[Jim Shepard]

So, like, it could be any year.

[David Dobrik]

It could be any year. Technically, I've won it for every single year.

[Jim Shepard]

Yeah, you have. Every year that they've had it.

[David Dobrik]

All right, guys, go check out Jim on Snapchat. Or. I don't know.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Are you on Snapchat, Jim?

[Jim Shepard]

I'm on Snapchat.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Okay.

[David Dobrik]

The funniest part about the Snapchat team is they're all older, obviously. They're like, other than the CEO, they're, like, up, like, above 40, right?

[Jim Shepard]

No, like my team.

[David Dobrik]

I'm talking, like, all the people that invest in staff. The people that are, like, at the canned dinner.

[Jim Shepard]

Oh, yeah. A lot of those people are seasoned in their careers. But I do think, like, the creator managers, a lot of the folks that work with creators directly every day.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, yes.

[Jim Shepard]

They are, like, of the culture. And they're young. No, but way cooler than me.

[David Dobrik]

Yes. But what I was getting at is even like. Like, the investors that are, like, in their 50s or 60s, whatever that are at these dinners will be in group chats on Snap.

[Natalie]

Oh, yeah.

[David Dobrik]

And you never see that anywhere where it's like an older person, like, very easily is operating Snapchat. Even when I see Jim on Snap, I'm like, how'd you figure this out?

[Jim Shepard]

I'm a boomer. Has figured out Snapchat somehow.

[Natalie]

My whole family is on Snapchat. My parents Snapchat me every single day. They vlog the day they send it to me just because.

[David Dobrik]

Oh, yeah, I've seen some of Homero's posts.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Yeah, Snap.

[Natalie]

He Snapchats me every day. My dad.

[Unidentified Snapchat Team Member]

Really?

[Jim Shepard]

Cuz he knows you're on there.

[David Dobrik]

He should be.

[Natalie]

Well yeah, of course he's going on program. Yeah, yeah, he should be monetized.

[Jim Shepard]

This is why Natalie should work at Snapchat so her whole family.

[David Dobrik]

All right guys, that's all the time we have. Thank you Jim Shepard for joining us. Thank you, Jason Nash. Go check out his daily vlogs. Go check out Natalie. Snap, I guess. Show you my snap and we'll see you guys later. Bye.

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