Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Snapchat to feature video from major media brands

Snapchat’s white ghost logo is looking more green these days — as in swimming in added revenue.
The messaging app, once known primarily for saucy snaps — its messages disappear in seconds — is now being endorsed by a host of traditional media outlets that are eager to jump into bed with the growing social site, The Post has learned.
Snapchat is expected to announce on Tuesday a new deal to feature video from scores of major media brands, including Comedy Central, Food Network, CNN, National Geographic, Vice and Warner Music Group.
The companies are joining forces with Snapchat’s content boss Nick Bell, a former senior vice president of digital at News Corp (owner of The Post) who left in April 2014.
Bell has been helping the three-year-old app dial into media partnerships to capitalize on its thick slice of teen users who are glued to their phones (and friends).
The site has 100 million users around the globe.
Warner is jumping aboard with DJ Chris Miles, who is expected to do voice-overs and introduce new tracks, sources said.
News of the plans to carry media and music content was first noted by the ad-tech site Digiday.
Users who share photos and text chats can also access the video via the Discover button. The content channels are available to all.
The revenue share on ads featured by the new Snapchat channels will be, in general, slightly more favorable to partners than the typical 70 percent retained by media partners on other outlets like Apple iTunes, one executive told The Post.
The service, which Facebook tried to buy for $3 billion — before splurging on on WhatsApp for $19 billion — is also growing up in other ways.
The Los Angeles-based tech company just hired Imran Khan, the Credit Suisse banker who led the Alibaba IPO.
Khan was named chief strategy officer in December.
The move prompted chatter that Snapchat is headed toward public markets. It is currently valued at $10 billion.
Run by CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat has attracted investments from Yahoo! and SV Capital, among others.
The company hired former Google communications boss and political strategist Jill Hazelbaker to help Spiegel rise above the embarrassment of his frat-house e-mail chains of childish sexist comments.
Advertisers have taken note of Snapchat’s brushfire-like spread among teens around the globe.
The first advertiser to come on board was Universal, which plugged its “Ouija” movie. The ad scored millions of views and the film performed well at the box office.
Back in July, a survey showed Snapchat’s audience aged 14-to-17 was the fourth-biggest in the social media category.
Snapchat took a 36.8 percent share of teens versus 31.8 percent for Twitter’s Vine and 8 percent for WhatsApp.
Google’s YouTube is the category leader.

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