Snapchat is going to put ads next to messages from your friends

Snapchat will soon commencement “experimenting” pinch placing sponsored messages adjacent to chat threads from friends, according to CEO Evan Spiegel.

These “Sponsored Snaps” from brands will look arsenic unread messages successful Snapchat’s main Chat tab, implying that they’ll beryllium supra messages from a person’s contacts until they’re acted on. This is nan first clip Snap will show ads successful nan astir utilized portion of its app.

In an worker memo besides posted connected nan company’s website, Spiegel says that Sponsored Snaps will look “without a push notification, and opening nan connection is optional.” It’s unclear really easy it will beryllium to get free of a Sponsored Snap without opening it, aliases if doing truthful will moreover beryllium possible. (Snap declined to remark beyond Spiegel’s memo.)

“Sponsored Snaps empower advertisers to pass visually pinch nan Snapchat community, making nan halfway functionality of Snapchat accessible to advertisers,” writes Spiegel, who goes connected to statement that, “As always, your conversations pinch friends are backstage and are not utilized for advertizing purposes.”

To understand why Snap is doing this now, look nary further than its banal price, which is hovering adjacent an all-time low. Despite now reaching complete 850 cardinal monthly users globally, Snap’s ads business is still mini compared to its biggest competitors, including Meta. Snap besides still isn’t profitable.

“The maturation of our integer advertizing business is 1 of nan astir important inputs to our agelong word gross potential, and investors are concerned that we aren’t increasing faster,” writes Spiegel successful his memo, which is timed to nan company’s 13-year anniversary. He writes that Snap will besides commencement letting advertisers salary to beforehand places successful its Map tab, wherever Snapchat users tin spot nan whereabouts of their friends.