Many of you probably noticed a couple weeks ago when Snapchat’s user interface received a major facelift in its latest update. This new update gave way to a more real-time content system, providing users and viewers with more content from advertising partners at all times. On the surface, the UI update was just a nice redesign, but it was actually laying the groundwork for Snapchat’s ad partner program, rolled out yesterday, 6/13.
Ad-type content has existed on Snapchat for many months now, involving a very select group of partners like Buzzfeed, ESPN, NowThis and MTV. However, now, Snapchat’s API will open up advertising to a wider variety of advertisers. Even more unfortunate for users is the news that these ads will appear “in between the Snapchat Stories in users’ streams,” according to Fortune.
This means that video content on Snapchat will at least somewhat resemble the ad-supported freemium content on Spotify, in the sense that content will be punctuated with ads. This could even potentially give way to a subscriber model for Snapchat in the future, though there has been no evidence so far to suggest that will happen. 
Snapchat claims to generate over 100 billion views per day, more than Facebook. With an ad-supported system in place and higher than average costs to advertisers, Snapchat is worked hard toward their ambitious goals leaked in a report earlier this year. Snapchat says it expects to have revenue of about $300 million this year and between $500 million and $1 billion next year. Last year, the company made just $59 million.
via Fortune
