Snapchat’s never-ending quest to find a way to monetize its massive userbase has led it to do some pretty interesting stuff, but it’s most-recent idea is probably the most standard, unoriginal one yet, which isn’t a bad thing. First announced a few weeks ago, and officially launched today, Snapchat’s new “lens store” allows users to purchase $0.99 lenses for their photos.
Snapchat has just unveiled the “lens store,” a place where users can buy additional photo lenses for $0.99 (£0.69). The company will continue to offer free lenses every day, but there will now be a further 30 which, if purchased, will stick around forever, according to The Verge. Snapchat’s lenses have proven incredibly popular so far, appearing in over 10 million snaps every day. According to Snapchat, geo-filters (such as “London Life”) appear in around one million photos per day. Snapchat currently has 100 million users. Photo lenses can be branded and Snapchat is working on partnerships with clients, such as EON Productions (who made “Spectre”). According to Re/Code, Snapchat — which is valued at $16 billion (£10 billion) — is aiming to bring in $50 million (£32 million) in revenue during 2015. The move comes after Fidelity, a mutual fund, wrote down its investment in Snapchat by 25%. After the company rejected a $3 billion (£1.9 billion) offer from Facebook, there has been a real drive to increase the revenues of the company alongside usage figures.
