Beyond the filters and ephemeral stories that capture the attention of centennials, Snapchat mostly seeks to educate about the possibilities of augmented reality (AR) and democratize its access.
Recently Snapchat announced the opening of a laboratory for AR creators in the United States, through which brands can invest in creators. Now, with the recent opening of an office in Mexico City, Snapchat wants Mexican brands to also open the portfolio to support the Snap Stars, says Unocero.
“We are launching a new AR Ghost innovation laboratory, like the name of our logo, and with this we are going to give funding to developers and creators and their teams. There is more and more interest from companies to invest in these creators. In the United States, for example, Verizon put 3.5 million dollars for this initiative and we will be seeing something similar in Mexico. We are going to work with the largest companies in Mexico, who are very committed to the development of AR, ”said Nana Murugesan, Snapchat’s director of international markets, in an interview with Unocero.
Although the manager did not give more details about the brands they want to work with in Mexico, he did say that the opening of the office in the country will allow their projects to advance much more quickly than before, and another of his focuses is AR local content creation.
“In Mexico we want Snapchat to be the best place for creators to express themselves and find tools that celebrate their local traditions. When a Mexican opens Snapchat we want him to see his local traditions and experiences reflected, ”he said.
Murugesan describes the Mexican Snapchat experience as one focused on local traditions and in the desire of the audience to always share visually what they live with family and friends, which in their experience, is a case of empathy between users and the application that has worked well in markets such as India, for example.
Snapchat opens office in Mexico City
These tools attempt to open up the appeal of Snapchat to more creators and brands while closing out the competition with higher-volume platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, which have short formats, filters and ephemeral but on a much larger scale today, despite that Snapchat was the first of these platforms to advance augmented reality experiences.
Of all the use of social networks in Mexico, Youtube is preferred with 96.3% percentage of use, while Facebook and WhatsApp occupy the second and third place, with 95.3% and 91.3% representation respectively. In this context, Snapchat appears at number 10, with 34.3% preference, below similar formats such as TikTok, located in eighth place, with 46.8%, according to data as of January 2021 from Hootsuite and Branch.
What’s new and what’s coming for creators
Some of the latest Snapchat launches, at their recent developer event, announced filter-building partnerships and experiences with Lego, Disney, and even the Bumble dating app.
Murugensen warns that these will reach the Mexican market; however, there is no set date as well as the tools for creators to continue growing their business through payments from their fans, with the “gitfing” tool.
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