Snapchat Will Reportedly Launch a New, In-App Gaming Platform Next Month

As Snapchat looks to improve its business prospects in the face of slowing audience growth, one area that it's keen to expand upon is gaming. Snapchat has been slowly adding in more interactive games and features - within the Lens carousel, there's now a whole range of AR games, or 'Snappables', which you can play by yourself or with friends. 

The next stage of this, according to a new report from Cheddar, will be a dedicated Snapchat gaming platform, which will feature a range of games from outside developers that are designed to work specifically in the app.

Rumors of a Snapchat gaming platform have been circulating for some time - back in 2017, when Chinese tech giant Tencent acquired a 10% stake in Snap Inc., reports followed that Tencent would be looking to work with the company on developing mobile games. Tencent, apart from operating WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, is also the largest gaming company in the world by revenue - Tencent’s games division makes “King of Glory” the world’s top-grossing mobile game, and has worked with Riot Games to develop “League of Legends.”

Following this, last June, The Information reported that Snap was "preparing to launch a platform that would let outside developers create games to be played through the Snapchat app". 

It makes perfect sense for Snapchat, given the app's younger user base, to put more focus on gaming content, which could open up major revenue opportunities through in-game purchases or advertising. Underlining the potential, a recent study from Slice Intelligence found that mobile gamers spent an average of $87 dollars on their “free-to-play” games in 2018. If, for example, Snapchat was able to host the next 'Pokemon Go', that could be a major coup for the app, while it could also help re-ignite user growth by attracting more players to the platform.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchat-will-reportedly-launch-a-new-in-app-gaming-platform-next-month/550629/

Original source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/