Snapchat launches ‘shoppable’ augmented reality feature in Lenses
A Snapchat update in 2015 offered an augmented reality that can alter users’ faces, providing funny and interesting new features. Later they released another update to their augmented reality feature that was sponsored by specific brands, making Snapchat money from advertisements and providing new, temporary features to keep users engaged in the application. Today, they updated their sponsored AR by including a “shop now” button.
Four brands were granted the opportunity to be the first to use this new feature: Adidas, Clairol, King, and STX Entertainment. The update includes the use of augmented reality and facial recognition technology to attract users to utilize the new feature. Once their attention is grabbed, right above the button you would normally click to take the picture, there is a “shop now” button that is a link to the sponsored company’s advertised product.
With over 250 million snapchats sent every day using this AR lens, and an average of three minutes of use per user, Snapchat’s AR advertisements are going to bring revenue to both Snapchat as well as any company that partners with them. Because these advertisements change every day, this will play a large role in Snapchat’s total revenue. Snapchat successfully used augmented reality to bring significant profit to their company.
I get that Snapchat has to make money somehow, but these new updates seem to be more about bringing in money from ads than trying to keep users happy with the app. The last update made ads pop up everywhere. That may be good for Snapchat and the companies advertising, but I personally was just annoyed by how many times I have to click through to skip ads. Now this new update just ads a new technology for ads to use on Snapchat. Snapchat was one of the top social media apps for awhile because it was so different from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but not it just seems to be sinking in quality to that level. If they keep up with only caring about making money from ads, they won’t have as many users left.
When I first think of social media, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter automatically come to mind. I think they are the traditional sense of the term, where you can share images and thoughts to one another on a timeline. However the app that is redefining the term social media is Snapchat. They have such a unique presence that has taken over all social media, even regular text messaging. Being a college student, I am aware that Snapchat is actually the most used social media of them all. I can not go anywhere on campus without seeing someone taking a picture for Snapchat.
Therefore, it makes sense that Snapchat makes for a great platform to advertise on. I think that these companies are extremely smart for investing in Snapchat to place their shop now buttons. I could see this feature becoming a huge success for both Snapchat and the companies who chose to advertise on Snapchat.
Here is an article that supports my view of Snapchat reshaping social media: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/technology/how-snapchat-works.html
I agree with you, augmented reality seems to be a big part of the future specifically shopping, and it will only increase revenue for companies . Just like Snapchat, Amazon has been using augmented reality shopping and not only will it increase revenues for both companies it seems to increase the probability of sales. Amazon’s augmented reality shopping allows customers to see millions of products in their home through their app which allows customers to make a more confident purchase. Also Amazon says that customers are more likely to buy a product after they see it in augmented reality. While for now augmented reality shopping is main used for seeing how objects will look in a room I believe clothes will be the next thing we see in augmented reality shopping and while some companies are using this already it still does need some fine tuning.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/amazons-augmented-reality-shopping-feature/story?id=53376999