Snapchat is looking to boost revenue by partnering with big-name media companies for the launch of their new service Discover. The section within the app will allow media outlets to share articles, video, and music, according to Digiday.
Snapchat is in talks with Time, Comedy Central, BuzzFeed, CNN, the Daily Mail, ESPN, Hearst (Cosmopolitan magazine), National Geographic, Vevo and Spotify, Digiday learned.
A portion of the Discover partnership will include original content created by those companies, as Digiday reports. “Snapchat is also urging these media companies to seek brands that want to advertise against the media they will distribute on Discover, with Snapchat retaining a portion of the revenue.”
The photo-sharing app isn’t just relying on Discover to bolster revenue. Snapchat is in conversations with marketers about incorporating ads into its live-events product called “Our Story,” according to people with knowledge of the discussions, as AdAge writes.
“Snapchat is looking to sell sponsorships of individual “Our Stories” as well as letting advertisers pay to have branded snaps appear within the live-event collections,” according to AdAge.
On Oct. 17, Snapchat debuted advertisements into its Recent Updates feed. In a blog post, the Snapchat team wrote: “Advertising allows us to support our service while delivering neat content to Snapchatters. We promise that we’ll use the money we make to continue to surprise the Snapchat community with more terrific products – that’s what we love to do!”
As of August 2014, Snapchat reportedly had 100 million monthly users.
Flickr photo of Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel by user TechCrunch