Snapchat Presses Pause on First Advertising Product

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Snapchat of Venice has put its first advertising product “Brand Stories” on hold.

Launched in October, Brand Stories was a set of sponsored content streams embedded in the Snapchat home screen that users could choose to tap on.

A spokeswoman for Snapchat said on Tuesday that the pause was part of an ongoing fine tuning effort to ensure a better user experience.

Though Brand Stories are now offline, Snapchat’s other two advertising products are still active. Snapchat sells advertisements with its “Our Story” feature, a curated stream of pictures and videos from live events, and its “Discover” feature, a news video clip section.

Those advertising products have large audiences and sponsors willing to pay top dollar for placements. In the past, some observers said that despite its popularity, Snapchat appeared to have few ways to make money; that criticism is increasingly muted.

On Monday, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel announced on Twitter that Snapchat’s unsponsored Our Story stream of pictures and videos from the Coachella Music Festival had over 40 million viewers.

Reportedly, advertisements on the Discover feature go for about $100,000 a day.

Founded in 2011, Snapchat reportedly has over 200 million users and a valuation of $15 billion.

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.

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