NEW DELHI: Snapchat on Tuesday said that its augmented reality (AR) creator community in India grew by 60 per cent thie year, riding on its successful localisation strategy piloted in the country.

Since its launch in India, time spent on Spotlight by the Indian Snapchatter community has increased by 175 per cent (YOY).

Discover, Snap's content platform featuring selected partners, had over 140 million Indian Snapchatters watching a show in 2022, while local channels publishing premium content on Discover increased by 150 per cent (YOY), said the company.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, said in a statement that the localisation strategy has been the key in expanding cultural moments by adding more regional festivals, upskilling the Indian youth in AR to develop highly active and creative local creator communities, and has gone on to become a roadmap adopted by other global Snap markets.

"This year, to celebrate the diversity and festive spirit in India, Snap collaborated with Indian lens creators to introduce AR Lenses for over 75 local festivals and rolled out over 500 hyperlocal geofilters across cities to help Snapchatters engage with their communities at a hyper-local level," said the company.

These creators are now active users of Lens Studio, Snap's free, desktop application designed to help artists, designers, and developers build AR experiences

To drive AR skilling among the Indian youth, Snap partnered with Atal Innovation Mission and NITI Aayog to help reach more than 8,000 government schools in India and train over 12,000 teachers educating millions of students across the country with AR, over a two-year time frame, said the company.

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