If you’ve gotten used to using some of the crazy lens on your Snapchat, and you even purchased a lot of them for future use, well, we have bad news for you. The popular messaging app has decided to close down its Lens Store after just launching it last November. While this may be annoying if you’re a fan of this feature, this is of course a business decision that the company had to make in order to put their resources where it matters the most, business-wise which is of course advertising.
Even though there were tens of thousands of lenses being purchased every day, it has probably come to the point where Snapchat’s lean team (they have around 500 employees) could not handle both the Lens Store business as well as the advertising part of the business, which technically should be bringing in more money. The Lenses were actually the first time that the messaging app went into the in-app purchasing business, and while it met with moderate success, the company still decided to shut it down.
The Lens Store actually had Sponsored Lenses and even though they are shutting down the store itself, they will still be offering that advertising aspect to brands, for some reason. We actually don’t know how that will work out, but that’s what they are saying. Snapchat is also working on resolving issues that some advertisers had with them regarding lack of data and engagement metrics. This includes building in-house ad tech solutions and working with marketing research partners.
For the regular users who don’t care about these behind the scenes things and just want to know what will happen to their lenses, the Lens Store will remain open until January 8. But all the lenses you’ve previously bought will still be usable until Snapchat says you can’t anymore. But that seems to be not in the immediate future. In fact, they’ll be giving away 10 free lenses every day so enjoy them while they last.
VIA: Business Insider
