Snapchat just poached a key ad exec from Facebook to turn on the money jets
Re/Code first reported that Sriram Krishnan is leaving Facebook for the ephemeral messaging app. At Facebook, Krishnan led one of the upcoming threats to Google's ad dominance: Facebook Audience Network.
As its product manager known for making "Hamilton" references, Krishnan helped Facebook unlock money by taking its advertising to publishers outside of the app, keeping user's newsfeeds clutter free and making more ad units available to advertisers.
That's the kind of expertise Snapchat needs to make money as a growing company. And at Snapchat, Krishnan will be responsible for heading up monetization.
In the past week, Snapchat announced it's inked a deal with Nielsen to start measuring its ads in a way that models it like a TV network. By giving advertisers a metric, like gross rating points, that it could compare to what they run on a traditional ad campaign, Snapchat is trying to promote itself as a better ad spend.
Given Krishnan's strength at finding revenue in new places, he'll be a key factor in whether or not Snapchat finds a good way to monetize its disappearing messages. Previous attempts like a Lens Store for users to buy crazy filters shut down only after two months as it refocused on building out the advertising business.
Krishnan did not immediately return request for comment.