Snapchat has introduced a new redesigned user interface that aims to bring more visibility to its Discover section, which in turn is a ploy to drive in more advertising revenue.
As per the new revamped look, publishers now have the option to add an image to go along with the headline which enhances the story’s prospects among potential readers. That is not all as the Discover and Live Stories are now merged to ensure both have an equal chance to reach out to its viewers.
Currently, Live Stories that comprises of images and videos contributed by users are way more popular with viewership reaching tens of millions during popular events. In contrast, the publisher-driven Discover gets just about a million views every day.
Publishers such as CNN, Hearst, IGN and the likes maintain dedicated Snapchat-focused crew that churns out content exclusively for the messaging platform. The publishers are also allowed to run ads on their content with Snapchat making money in the process as part of revenue sharing policy. Apart from this, Snapchat also places an ad in the Live Story section though not on user generated content.
However, with both the publisher oriented Discover and Live Story being made a single entity, publishers can look forward to having their content reaching out to more viewers. It naturally translates to better ad revenue though publishers have stated it’s too early to predict any change at the moment. The move, however, has been hailed by most as a positive development.
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“Everything [up until now] has been behind a wall—you have to press the logo to get then taken to the experience,” Oren Katzeff, head of programming at Tastemade said to Adweek. “What’s exciting about the redesign is that it allows you to take some of the content that’s performed well and showcase it more.”
Snapchat boasts of a growing tech-savvy user base that uses the platform mostly for messaging or sharing their content. However, unlike Facebook, Snapchat follows a stricter privacy norm in that it never shares its user details with advertisers to serve more targeted ads. That in itself is a huge draw for the messaging. The company is valued $18 billion posts the latest fundraising drive and has a daily visitor count of over 150 million.
