There has been much speculation about the revenue streams that Snapchat will open up in order to capitalize on its huge user base and for now the company is going with a tried and tested method: advertisements. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel confirmed at a Vanity Fair event in San Francisco that the ephemeral messaging service will soon be getting its first ads. They won’t be targeted so don’t expect these ads to be similar to the ones you might see on Google or Facebook.
One of the reasons why ads on Snapchat won’t be targeted is because this service doesn’t collect as much information about its users which can then be used to target ads at them.
One might ask the question why advertisers would want to spend money on a platform that doesn’t allow targeted advertisements? Snapchat will be an appealing medium for advertisers because of its reach particularly with younger demographics, with 50 percent of all users being under the age of 25.
So how will the ads be served? According to Spiegel they will be displayed in Snapchat’s new “Stories” feature which lets users create a feed of countless snaps which can be viewed multiple times over 24 hours.
Spiegel however did not confirm exactly when the ads will be rolling out and which brands will be allowed to advertise their products initially.