As the fast-paced world of online platforms continues to grow, industry giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Snapchat are constantly evolving in order to retain audience engagement – from forging relationships with influencers, to producing their own shows.
Snapchat’s Newest Feature
According to Mashable, in order to establish a better layout for their original content, Snapchat is currently testing a new feature: “a dedicated section for shows separate from the main Discover page and other publisher content.” This new Shows section arranges the shows in a much more organized way than the current Discover view – resulting in a “cleaner” aesthetic that is “similar to what you might expect on a streaming platform.” This section is not yet fully accessible to all Snapchat users, as it is currently in its testing phase.
A Logical Next Step
Last year Snapchat significantly increased funding for original shows, so the addition of the Shows page is a logical next step as they seek to highlight their “growing slate of original content.” Snapchat’s original shows have already been quite successful, attracting wide audiences. Mashable reports:
These investments are paying off, according to Snap, which says time spent watching shows has more than tripled over the last year. The company hasn’t disclosed specific viewership stats, but popular shows can attract a large audience. NBC’s news show, “Stay Tuned,” averaged between 25 million and 35 million monthly viewers last year, Digiday reported, and Snap Original “Bringing up Bahbie,” drew more than 10 million viewers in its first 24 hours, Snap said earlier this year.
And those stats come from before Snapchat began testing the Shows page – who knows how those numbers might change as more users utilize this new feature!