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Snapchat, the popular ephemeral photo-sharing app, is acquiring search and recommendation app Vurb for roughly $110 million, according to The Information.
While specifics surrounding Snapchat’s intentions with the purchase are unknown, it's likely that Vurb will help bolster Snapchat’s messaging and search features, facilitating the use of image search to surface recommendations to users.
The Vurb app provides mobile users with a card-based contextual search engine that combines web search with tools from apps and services into a single experience. Search results are provided as “cards,” which include relevant information such as open times, locations, and products, which can then be shared with friends, cutting out multiple toggling between screens.
The acquisition of Vurb, as well as Snapchat’s emphasis on the camera section of its app, puts it in a strong position to expand into features like visual search.
- Discovery is already an important part of the Snapchat experience. Users are accessing Snapchat’s Discovery section increasingly to view content from brands and celebrities. By improving its ability to recommend brands and products to users, Snapchat could begin threatening other search engines' market share.
- Snapchat is not reliant on the phone’s native camera. While other social media apps are reliant on the native phone camera, Snapchat forces consumers to use the app’s camera. The introduction of Memories — the app’s smart camera roll — could begin drawing users away from their phone’s native photo folders, deepening users’ commitment to the app.
- Snapchat has been aggressively hiring engineers that specialize in object recognition. And although other tech companies such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are all making headway in this regard, Snapchat’s primary use case as a photo-sharing app may enable it to control greater mindshare.
Cameras are intrinsically tied to the smartphone user experience. As the technology used to recognize objects advances, it makes sense that the camera-as-a-platform market will begin to gain traction. This will provide the easiest form of content and discovery for both consumers and brands. For this reason, there is a massive value potential for photo-focused apps, like Snapchat, to grab mindshare early on in this space.
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