Snapchat Exploring Advertising Avenues

Most of us have heard about it and many of us have strong opinions of it – there’s no denying that Snapchat has worked its way well into the lives of many of us and especially into our younger population.

For those unaware, Snapchat is an image sharing program where users can take a picture or a short video and send it to select friends – this media then deletes itself up to 10 seconds after it’s originally viewed or instantly after the video has finished. This is akin to its logo, a ghost.

Snapchat recently turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook last year, but the question remains – how do they make money?

We’ve learned, thanks to the Wall Street Journal, that they’re mulling over a new service called “Snapchat Discovery” which will allow media companies and advertisers to push advertisements to Snapchat’s userbase. According to this report, Snapchat have been in contact with at least a dozen media companies and are looking to launch this update in November 2014.

Unfortunately, no statement from Snapchat could be acquired at this time.

There’s a few famous quotes I think relate to this situation. The first being “Hell, it’s about time” from Blizzard’s ever popular game Starcraft II and a common saying which is “money makes the world go round”. As much as we all love a free service, it was only a matter of time before Snapchat had to start earning something back.

As reported by ComScore, an industry researcher – Snapchat is the third-most popular social media app among people between the ages of 18 and 34, so it only makes sense that now is the time for them to strike.

Image courtesy of Business ETC