I just got my first SnapChat ad. I mean, I closed it after one second but this meant more than that. It was the first time I’ve been a part of SnapChat’s revenue generation machine. After their $80 Million series B its obvious that SnapChat is about to hit the market hard and try and execute on some huge plans. This got me to thinking about the possible ways that SnapChat is going to monetize.
- Sell user engagement to other companies - Snapchat has a ton of users with growing engagement. Companies can tap into this user base by enticing Snapchat-ers to share products with others for benefits. Ex. “Snap this picture of taco bell and tag our new Cheesy-Gordida-IBS taco to 20 friends and get one free.”
- Sell added features to users - Give users the option to spend money on stickers, ability to save tons of photos, longer time spent on each photo, photo effects, snap chat desktop version.
- Sell ad space - Make users watch quick ad before they can view their snap.
- Sell information about users - Sell location data, time, snaps per day, products tagged, etc.
- Sell chance display coupons - Businesses could buy “tile” space on the users news feed. I could see Taco Bell sending one free taco to every single Snapchat user.
- Verified/Premium/Celebrity - Have the ability to upgrade your account to an elite status: followers outside of your friend circle, verified accounts, Possibly even promoted accounts (for businesses or artists who want to share more information)
- Collaboration with other services for link space - “Double Tap to Listen” I could see apps promoting their products within the feed and links taking users directly to a webpage, fanpage, or download link. Thinking about the music space is a cool spot to go in. I’d like to see a collaboration between Spotify and Snapchat to allow users to send songs to others and play the song directly through SnapChat or open in Spotz.
- 10 cents to view a picture again - Shallow, but the small purchases over time could add up
- Parental Control - Parents could pay a small fee in order to have more control over their childs accounts. They would be able to see what pictures are being snapped and who they are being shared with. Big Brother Central.
- Share with people in a certain location - I could see businesses paying a large premium to be able to snap an ad to users in a certain location. Take Outside Lands for example, tents with no traffic could snap out a coupon for users to come and visit for free samples.
Some of these are way more realistic than others but I’m interested/excited to see about the ways the ghost will engage users more.
October 7th, 2013 1:51pm
Written by
Greg Kamradt
At
Mon Oct 07 2013