Snap Audience Network, which doesn't yet have an official launch date, will enable app developers to leverage the same types of full-screen, vertical video ads that appear inside Snapchat's app.

Snap Inc. on Thursday announced plans to launch the Snap Audience Network, a mobile ad network that will enable other companies to run Snap ads within their own apps.

Snap Audience Network, which doesn’t yet have an official launch date, will enable app developers to leverage the same types of full-screen, vertical video ads that appear inside Snapchat’s app. Snap will sell ads on behalf of the app developers and will retain a portion of the ad revenue.

The move echoes Facebook Inc.’s 2014 launch of a mobile ad network, Audience Network. And in developing a revenue stream that extends beyond the walls of its platform, Snap appears to be looking for a way to overcome its user growth problem; Snapchat had 186 million daily active users in the fourth quarter, which was down 1 million users from a year earlier and flat with the previous quarter.

Snap has yet to release details about the Snap Audience Network’s targeting features. Those elements may prove critical to its long-term success as it competes for ad dollars with giants such as Facebook and Google.

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Snap Audience Network will initially target U.S. consumers on Apple Inc. devices. However, that will likely change as it develops.

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