Snapchat, the popular ephemeral messaging network, is reportedly in talks with media companies for a service named Snapchat Discovery, claims a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources that the 3-year old startup is in talks with at least a dozen media companies for the service set to debut in November.
One of the sources said that Mail Online owned by Daily Mail would be one of the initial contributors, however, Mail Online declined to comment.
Snapchat, which turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook last year, has been looking for raising funds from its investors. According to sources close to the matter, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reportedly invested $10 billion in the firm.
Although the company hasn’t shared any official figures about its user base, Digiday, a marketing news site reported that Snapchat revealed during its recent presentation that more than half of its users are in the age group of 13 to 17. Over 500 million snaps are shared every day with every user checking messages at least 14 times a day in an average.
Industry researcher ComScore said that Snapchat stands next to Facebook and Instagram as the third most popular app being used by people in the age group of 18 to 34.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said during a public speech recently that he wants to help young and creative artists to promote themselves through the company’s platform rather than big corporations with big budgets for marketing.
Currently, the company runs a service called Snapchat Stories that lets advertisers to string several messages together and broadcast them to users. Snapchat Discovery is expected to be like the brand pages on Facebook to reach out regularly to potential buyers.
