Ads to Invade Snapchat Soon, CEO Confirms
Source: Evan Spiegel
Since its inception, Snapchat has been free of advertisements. But like it or not, that's about to change.
Speaking at a San Francisco conference on Wednesday, the startup's 24-year-old cofounder and chief executive Evan Spiegel said that ads are imminent. The ads will show up in the Snapchat Stories feature, in between photos and videos users have shared, The Wall Street Journal reported. At this point, they will not be targeted to users based on their interests.
Spiegel suggested that the ads won't be too disruptive to users.
"They're not fancy. You just look at it if you want to look at it, and you don't if you don't," Spiegel said at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, according to the Journal.
This will be the first source of revenue for Snapchat, which launched three years ago and was recently valued at $10 billion by investors. Users might not be thrilled with the idea of ads, but they could mean money in the bank for Snapchat and allow it to demonstrate its value to investors.
The news of Snapchat ads isn't entirely a surprise. Back in August, the Journal reported that Snapchat was exploring the idea of launching a new feature for disappearing TV and movie clips, news articles, and ― everyone's favorite thing ― ads. The self-destructing message app maker has held talks with a number of media companies and advertisers about the service, reportedly dubbed Snapchat Discovery.
In the interview Wednesday, Spiegel did not specifically mention Snapchat Discovery, or say exactly when the ads would arrive in the app.
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