Social network Snapchat will test the deployment of brand-sponsored messages in the app’s “chat” tab. Yet another attempt by the platform to attract advertisers.
Sponsored messages on Snapchat. This is what the social network is going to experiment with according to information relayed by the American media The VergeThe announcement was made by Evan Spiegel, the head of the social network, in a letter to employees also published on the company’s website.
Concretely, these messages sponsored by brands will appear as unread messages in the “chat” tab of the platform, below the private conversations with your contacts. Users will therefore have to click on these messages to make them disappear.
Attracting advertisers
“Sponsored Snaps allow advertisers to visually communicate with the Snapchat community. Sponsored Snaps appear in the conversation’s inbox without a push notification, and opening the message is optional,” the Snapchat boss said.
Regarding the protection of personal data, Evan Spiegel assures that “your conversations with your friends are private and are not used for advertising purposes.”
This is a new attempt by Snapchat to attract advertisers and thus reassure the financial markets. Because although the platform now has more than 850 million monthly users worldwide, the application is still not profitable.
“Growing our digital advertising business is one of the most important elements of our long-term revenue potential, and investors are concerned that we’re not growing faster,” Spiegel said.
Indeed, advertising is the app’s primary source of revenue. It already allows brands to sponsor filters and requires users to watch ads, including in Spotlight, a public video feed. Yet its ad business remains minimal compared to its main competitors, such as Meta.
To boost its coffers, the social network is also expected to allow advertisers to pay to promote locations on the “map” tab, where users can see where their friends are.
