Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel says ads will soon appear on the disappearing-message service, monetizing the business valued at $10 billion earlier this year.
The ads will center on its “Stories” product, which gets 500 million views daily, and Spiegel says they will be optional to see.
“People are going to see the first ads on Snapchat soon,” Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel said at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco yesterday.
We’e cutting through the new technology around ads to the core of it, which is telling a story.”
Snapchat has been in discussion with newspapers, magazines and television networks, but you can expect a wide range of companies to advertise. Taco Bell and food delivery service Grubhub already use it as an advertising channel . It’s not clear exactly when the ads will appear.
Spiegel said another focus for the start-up is helping groups of people in the same location or attending the same event communicate and share their experience.
The Our Story feature, launched this year, has grown in popularity during big events like the World Cup and during college football games, he said.
“More people are watching college football on Snapchat than they are on television,” Spiegel said.
Snapchat has been experiencing fast growth. Users send more than 700 million disappearing ‘snaps’ a day and more than 500 million stories viewed daily, the company has said.
