Snapchat to enable ad targeting with third-party data: Report

Snap Inc, the parent company for Snapchat will allow for ad targeting via data purchased from third-party apps

Snapchat, Snap, Snap Inc, Snapchat ads, Snapchat ad data, Snapchat ad targeting, Snapchat IPO, Snapchat founder, Evan Spiegel, technology, technology news

Snap Inc, the parent company for Snapchat, has decided to go for third-party data based ads.

Looks like Snap Inc, the parent company for Snapchat will allow for ad targeting via data purchased from third-party apps, according to a Wall Street Journal report. This policy marks a u-turn from what CEO Evan Spiegel had previously said about the practice. Two years back, Spiegel had called this offline data-based targeting creepy, and said that Snapchat doesn’t want to do the same thing. But its 2017 now, and Snapchat is looking to go into an IPO worth $20-25 billion, and it will need to convince investors that it has a serious revenue plan.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Snap Inc has signed a deal with Oracle Data Cloud, (earlier Datalogix) which will help the company target users with better ads. Snap Inc will allow advertisers to use data from offline purchases to target consumers, notes the report.

As the report points, this is the first time Snapchat will be using this kind of third-party data. Rivals Facebook, Twitter, Google have been using this sort of targeting for sometime now with their deals with Datalogix. Snap Inc has been trying to boost up how it serves ads to customers and partnered with ad measurement companies, point the out report.

Snapchat filed for an initial public offering, according to a Reuters report in November, and is expected to go public by March 2017. According to the report, Snap Inc will be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion, making it the largest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

Snapchat started in 2012 as a free mobile app that allows users to send photos that vanish within seconds. It has more than 100 million active users, about 60 percent of whom are aged 13 to 24, making it an attractive way for advertisers to reach millennials.

Snap in September called itself as a camera company and in November launched its $130 video-camera sunglasses called Spectacles. The glasses are equipped with a camera that connects wirelessly to a smartphone to take and send “snaps” – the company’s terms for video and photo messages sent on its app.

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Rivals Facebook and Instagram have been trying to copy some of Snapchat’s most loved features likes Stories, filters in the camera in order to boost engagement with the younger audience.

With inputs from Reuters

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