Snapchat Launches “Discover,” Presents Stories From Advertisers To View

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As expected, Snapchat has launched a new “Discover” area that features advertisers presenting stories that can be viewed.

The social media company has released a blog post and short video explaining more about it:

Read more about the new feature here: First Look: Up Close With Snapchat Discover

Below is our original story posted before the launch was announced:

Snapchat’s move beyond messaging will shift into another gear Tuesday with the launch of Snapchat Discovery, the New York Post and Re/code reported this evening.

With Discovery, in the works for much of 2014, Snapchat aims to turn itself into a platform for content, much of it provided by publisher partners such as ESPN, CNN, Vice and Warner Music. Snapchat will share revenue from ads on the multimedia content with publishers; the Post reported that the revenue split will be “slightly more favorable to partners than the typical 70 percent retained by media partners on other outlets like Apple iTunes.”

Snapchat also has plans to create original content for Discovery, Digiday reported last week, and has built an editorial team, including former Verge reporter Ellis Hamburger.

The move is a further bet that the mobile app’s young audience will continue to engage with content beyond the ephemeral friend-to-friend messages that are the foundation of the four-year-old platform.

There’s strong evidence that it’s a smart bet. Snapchat Stories already enable users to string together Snapchat messages and share them with followers. Some brands have been using Stories to go after the millennial crowd; others have turned to Snapchat influencers and paid for endorsements. Snapchat also regularly creates Stories strung together from users’ public Snaps during events, such as music festivals, college football games and parades.

But none of that activity was generating revenue for Snapchat. That changed in October when the company sold its first advertising spot. The ad was a 20-second trailer for the Universal Pictures horror movie “Ouija” and views for the ad were reported to be in the millions.

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Since then McDonald’s, Samsung, Macy’s and Electronic Arts have run Snapchat ads, though earlier this month Adweek reported that some advertisers were balking at the $750,000 daily minimum Snapchat was asking.