So long, Lens Store! The Snapchat feature is now being discontinued after an extremely short lifespan of two months. Snapchat has decided to focus on more useful (read: profitable) features.
Also Read: With Spotlights, Instagram Walks Into Snapchat’s Playground
Snapchat Lens was first introduced in September and caused waves of excitement among its users. Lens was the product of the acquisition of Looksery’s, a facial recognition app that allowed uses to send funny, sometimes scary, animated selfies. Snapchatters could modify their selfies to be scary, raging, or even make them puke rainbows.
As the feature became popular among Snapchat users, the company decided to sell premium Lens filters at $0.99 each. However, according to the latest reports, Snapchat has decided to halt the functionality of its Lens Store, in favour of its ad business.
Of course, Lens filters will still be available for brands that want to create their own custom ones. This options comes at the hefty entry price of $450,000 peaking at $750,000 during popular days, such as holidays or Black Friday.
For those who have already purchased Lens filters from the Snapchat store, one can only assume that they will get to keep them, even after the store itself shuts down. The same sources claim that Snapchat is considering letting its users get the most popular ones for free at a later time, although for now this does not look like a top priority.
To our eyes, although the economy of scale may have worked well in the case of the Lens Store, it’s true that most profit comes from sponsored material on the platform.
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