(2015-02-28) Snapchat Publishing Platform

SnapChat is trying to move from its Self Destructing Instant Messaging origins to become a publishing Platform.

In Oct'2013 they launched the SnapchatStories feature which add Snaps together to create a narrative. When you add a Snap to your Story it lives for 24 hours before it disappears.

• In May'2014 they reported 500M Stories views/day.
• Jan'2015: Mash Able describes their experience using them. The inability to drive traffic anywhere outside Snapchat, however, can make it difficult to justify allocating such resources.

Jan'2015: they unveiled Snapchat Discover, a new section within the app featuring news articles, music and other content created by nearly a dozen handpicked media partners.

• They were working on including BuzzFeed on that list, but the deal fell through.
• The limited number of partners makes it like pre-DVR/channel-surfing TV. But who wants a lot of that?
• In the short-term, it does allow for them to play king-maker. (Scarcity)