Snapchat Context Cards can mean more advertiser data

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Snapchat introduced "Context Cards," which provide background information and calls to action on certain snaps, in a bid that could ultimately increase time spent on the platform and meaningfully generate more user data for advertisers. 

Context cards will be accessible through snaps that are tagged with a business-specific filter. Additionally, the feature will be on snaps posted on Snap Map and on an “Our Story,” which are Snapchat-curated public collections of user snaps. Users can swipe up on these snaps, where contextual information is available, to see things like business reviews and phone numbers, as well as make a restaurant reservation or call a ride-hailing service. Initial partners integrating include Foursquare, Uber, Lyft, TripAdvisor, and OpenTable, and Snapchat plans on onboarding more partners.

Here are some reasons why Context Cards bode well for Snapchat’s effort of onboarding more advertisers:

• The feature can potentially increase the time users spend in-app. Integrating the additional information and services within Context Cards can help keep users within Snapchat’s ecosystem — users can message their friends to coordinate plans, search for and make a reservation for a restaurant, and call an Uber to take them there, all within Snapchat, for example. This may lead to a rise in the average time users spend within the app.
• Context cards can lead to more search and location data on users. Users may begin using Snapchat as more of a business-discovery platform, similar to Yelp. However, Snapchat’s abundance of video content in Our Stories and Snap Map may give users a reason to favor it over other such platforms that are more photo-heavy. Being used this way would ultimately provide the company with more data on users’ whereabouts and preferences, which would help it onboard more advertisers amid slowing user growth. 

Meanwhile, the feature also opens up other potential revenue opportunities for the company. Snapchat could begin to charge partners for integrating into Context Cards, or allow businesses to sell products on the feature and take a cut of the revenue, for example. Generating these additional revenue streams is important as nearly all of the company's revenue is derived from advertising.

Kevin Gallagher, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together a report on social media demographics that highlights the key audience demographics for six major social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. It also:

• Breaks down the reach of social platform audiences in terms of age, income, education, and gender. 
• Examines how time spent and monthly users across major age brackets have changed in the past three years. 
• Explores the preferences of US teens and young millennials, and how they're changing. 
• Identifies the most important demographic changes that advertisers should monitor as social platforms continue to grow. 

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