Snapchat CEO Says Ads on Their Way

68

Snapchat will be ad-free no more.

The ephemeral mobile messaging app will soon have ads, said Chief Executive Evan Spiegel. The news came Wednesday night during an on-stage chat with Katie Couric and Michael Bloomberg at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco.

“We think they’re pretty cool,” Spiegel said of the ads.

The ads will be shown in the app’s Stories feature. My Story launched last year, letting Snapchatters upload a series of Snaps that could be watched for up to 24 hours. The Venice startup then rolled out Our Story earlier this summer to create a curated sequence of user-uploaded photos and videos from high-profile events such as music festivals and college football games.

Spiegel said the ads will not be targeted, unlike those on Facebook and Google. And users will also have the option to skip past them.

Reports first surfaced in August that the mobile app was looking for ways to incorporate ads and content. Snapchat’s decision to add ads isn’t surprising as it has yet to generate revenue that warrants its estimated $10 billion valuation.

Staff reporter Melissah Yang can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MelissahYang for the latest in L.A. tech news.