Snapchats days of skippable advertisements are finally over as the messaging service rolls out its new ad system. Users can now expect six-second ads.
It's worth noting that users can't skip these commercials. The forced-view ads just started on Monday and will most likely become the platform's new source of ad income until further notice, reports confirmed. So far, the ads that have come up were for movies like Deadpool 2 and Adrift. There were also ads for Snapple and Samsung's Galaxy S9 smartphone.
True To Its Word
The company's decision to go with the current form of commercials most likely stemmed from the failure of its previous business model. Just like most free applications and websites, Snapchat depends on advertisements to make money. Prior to 2014, the company did not waver in its stand against forced-view commercials.
Last month, the developers already hinted that the new ads were already in its testing phase and could be deployed soon. It looks like what they promised came to be and the new ads will remain unless an alternative option becomes available.
More Information About The Advertisements
Company insiders reveal that users only viewed around two seconds on average, which is not good enough for its advertisers.
The new advertisements, on the other hand, are unlike the previous ads in the messaging platform. The new ads are just in the form of a very short video that seamlessly plays and disappears. It was not revealed how brands could measure the usefulness of the ad segments since it does not contain any links to the official website or longer videos.
Moreover, the forced-view ads only appear in Shows, which are episodes Snapchat produced with companies like Viacom, NBC, and Disney.
Controversial Redesign
Most industry analysts pointed out that the number of Snapchat users went down after its most recent UI redesign. The numbers detailed in the company's financial reports show that there was just a 2.1 percent increase in average daily users from the last quarter of 2017.
To charge a higher rate for ads, the app needs to have more people use its service. Some of its attempts to encourage previous users to come back include another UI redesign, which was recently applied to the iOS version of the app. Snapchat also released a lineup of AR-based games which it calls Snappables.
Unless the company sees its profits move up, it appears that the six-second forced-view ads are here to stay.
