Snapchat said to be generating $50 million in revenue this year
The ephemeral messaging app, which has 100 million daily users, could make $200 million in revenue next year too, sources tell Re/code.
Last year, Snapchat launched its first revenue product - Live Stories. Since then, it's become one of Snapchat's most popular features. The music festival Coachella, for example, attracted more than 40 million unique viewers.
Live Stories, a feature where users can share photos and videos of a live event, is one of Snapchat's most lucrative business drivers.
Snapchat charges marketers two cents per view on a 10-second ad that shows up on one of the Live Stories contents, according to an earlier report in Re/code. Since Live Stories can attract about 20 million people on average in a 24-hour span, meaning ad space on a 20 million view story can be worth about $400,000.
Snapchat, which last raised funding at a valuation of $16 billion, is emphasizing ad revenue to justify that valuation.
Snapchat ads don't include what's called a pre-roll video - ads that run before your content starts playing - which CEO Evan Spiegel thinks people find "annoying." All Snapchat ads are also arranged vertically so they fill the entire screen on smartphones, which is a big theme on Snapchat.
Besides tracking towards $50 million in revenue this year, Snapchat is also on the prowl for a new CFO, Re/code reports. But Spiegel is taking his time finding the right person. Former Wall Street banker Imran Khan, who has been at Snapchat as its Chief Strategy Officer since December, is reportedly being considered for the role, but sources tell Re/code he won't take the job.