Currently in beta mode, Spill was created by ex-Twitter employees Alphonzo Terrell and DeVaris Brown and is currently available to a select group (prioritising LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals), with a waitlist of over 70,000. Like Twitter, it features a scrollable homepage, a hashtag search bar, and a trending topics page.
- A Push for Playfulness: But unlike Twitter, where people directly post plain text, Spill employs a more dynamic format for online expression, with users uploading their text onto images, gifs and videos.
For more on the rise of feel-good engagement, see Pressing Pause: Hopecore, Soft Living & Nostalgia for Self-Soothing in Gen Z Now: Youth Marketing Strategy Festival, London, 2023. - Commercially Conscious: Additionally, Spill is actively building opportunities for brand advertising and influencer marketing – making monetisation part of the app’s infrastructure. To date, partnering businesses include US entertainment giant Lionsgate, which is set to run advertisements on Spill’s homepage for its upcoming film, The Blackening.
Details are yet to be announced, but the social platform says it aims to monetise influencers via embedded blockchain technology, ensuring fair and transparent deals between parties. - Centralising Marginal Voices: As a Black social media founder, Terrell says Spill’s ethos prioritises the recognition of Black (and minority) content creators who often lead online trends, but are uncredited and unrewarded via either followings or brand deals. The platform is looking to centre its foundation around marginal communities (such as its BIPOC and LGBTQ+ members) by granting access to these demographics first.
See also Mansa Gathers Global Black Culture in Pop Culture Pulse: May 2023 for more on platforms recognising and cultivating Black culture at the forefront of global culture.
