Snapchat Discover, the section of the app where you can catch up on the day’s news, is a certified hit.
Discover has attracted media companies from BuzzFeed to CNN to The Wall Street Journal. And Snapchat has continued to attract new partners like Vogue, which made its Discover debut last month.
Discover has also captured the love of Snapchat’s users. When Business Insider interviewed ESPN’s digital boss John Kosner last month, he shared that ESPN’s Discover channel gets a whopping 18 million unique viewers per month, and 2.3 million per day. That's a huge chunk of viewers.
Anecdotally, I recently talked to a 20-year-old who said she got her news exclusively from Snapchat Discover and podcasts, which might be terrifying to hear if you work in more traditional forms of media.
But when we talk about Snapchat Discover being a success, it’s worth pointing out one particular thing: Discover is the tabloid rack of the digital world.
That doesn’t mean the production value is poor; in fact, many of the stories are a seamless mashup of GIFs, videos, and text. It's impressive. And it also doesn’t mean that Snapchat hasn’t signed up some more serious partners: WSJ, Vogue, and so on.
Yet still, every time I open the app it feels like I’m waiting in line at the grocery store, perusing the latest and greatest in the world of tabloids. Just glance to the right for a taste. This isn’t Snapchat’s “fault,” since each publication is responsible for choosing its own editorial direction on Snapchat. However, the stories that publications choose for Snapchat are an indication on what they think works on the platform, and that does tend toward a certain sensibility.
But don’t just take my word for it!
I took notes from the past week on which headlines appeared on the first few screens of my Snapchat Discover section. Here is a random sampling of the biggest news in Snapchat world (I trimmed a few off the list that were hard to understand without a picture, but other than that, I didn’t cherry-pick them).
Here’s the list:
- The untold story of Michael Jordan’s ban
- Kim flees Paris after $11m heist
- Zeke and Dak do it again for Dallas
- Feed the wildlife in Mafia III
- 10 ways to be beat procrastination
- Classy AF
- Is Gaga pregnant with a demon baby?
- Dez Bryant: ‘I’m America’s most hated’
- This beauty treatment made my eyebrows fall out
- The 21 most romantic facts of all time
- Star: ‘I need weed to survive’
- 12 hidden features in iOS 10
- Australia’s biggest football match
- The secret to hack your own PSL
- 18 makeout tips you need to try
- What your sign says about your bathroom habits
- The one change the Warriors want KD to make
- September’s biggest beefs
- Beware of the iPhone 7’s water resistance
- Holey Moley! Kim slays Paris
- What the hell just happened in St. Louis
- 10 things you should never do at a wedding
- 21 times texting was too real
- The sex ed they should’ve taught in school
- Kim K ditches Spanx after attack
- Is Adventure Time Finn-ished
- Did Tim Tebow homer on his first pitch? You bet he did
- Olympians visit the White House
- 21 times Tumblr was way too real about sexting
- 6 degrees of star sex
- 12 sex fears every guy has
- Caffeination across the nations
- Rihanna shows us how it’s done
- Cartman learns about the female anatomy
- Every time Kim Kardashian has posed nude
- America is hate-watching this election
- Gisele & Tom: Shots & bikinis
- McGregor goes off at UFC 205 press conference
- New Batman film may be coming soon
- The 18 most offensive Halloween costumes
- Drunk History on the Titanic: What could go wrong?
- Lizzie McGuire is all grown up
- Political fist fight breaks out on live TV
- Who will punch Martin Shkreli in the face
- Bella’s best shoot ever
- Snapchat’s new smart glasses
- Don’t believe in love? Read this
- 9 American foods that are banned in other countries
- Men tell us why they cheated
- 19 things only truly gross best friends will understand
- Why the 2016 election is so terrifying
- Boy, 3, filmed smoking weed
- Peace out, Biebs
- 7 reasons to avoid iOS 10
- Battle on skates
- 25 pictures that will change your worldview
- The lies people told to get laid
- Would you go on a date in VR?
- Last-second TD overturned in crazy finish
- 5 ways hooking up is different for men & women
- What it’s like to date when you can’t have sex
- I drink 200 cups of coffee a day
- The sexual attraction edition
- KG’s amazing career in his own words
- It’s 5 o’clock somewhere
- Adriana Lima & Naomi Campbell slay Versace
- An iPhone-charging hoodie & more sexy future tech
Snapchat declined to comment.
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