Snapchat Discovery allows brands to serve video content and ads

Snapchat has earned the favor of the coveted teen demographic, but can it turn engagement into money? The Wall Street Journal reports that the startup is in talks to launch Snapchat Discovery, a service that would partner with media companies and brands to serve video content and ads. Sources told the paper that Snapchat is aiming to launch the feature in November. The new product would use the same interaction of holding your finger on the screen to play content, except instead of user-generated photos and videos, it could be an article or a TV show. The Journal even mentioned movies, but continuously tapping my screen for two hours sounds like a huge pain.

Snapchat Inc., the mobile app that creates vanishing messages, could soon be a service for disappearing videos, news articles and advertisements. The startup has held talks with advertisers and media companies in recent weeks about a service called Snapchat Discovery that would show content and ads to Snapchat users, according to people briefed on the discussions. Snapchat Discovery is set to debut in November, one of the people said. At least a dozen media companies, including newspapers, magazines and television networks, have discussed providing content for Snapchat Discovery, the person said. MailOnline, a news website of British newspaper The Daily Mail, is one of the potential news providers, said one person. A MailOnline spokesman declined to comment. The product would let users read daily editions of publications as well as watch video clips of TV shows or movies by holding down a finger on the screen, like they do with photos and other messages on the app before disappearing. A Snapchat spokeswoman declined to comment. The offering could provide the three-year-old startup with its first revenue and demonstrate its potential value to investors. Snapchat last year raised funding at a valuation of more than $2 billion and spurned an acquisition offer of about $3 billion byFacebook Inc. Since then, it has sought to raise money from investors at increasingly high valuations.