Snapchat offers local publisher content in India with ‘Discover'

Snap Inc., makers of Snapchat, the popular social camera app, has announced the launch of a newly localised Discover, tailor-made for the growing community of Indian Snapchatters, through partnerships with nearly a dozen media brands, all premiering within the app over the next several weeks. This is the first time Snapchat has offered local publisher content in India, and follows recent announcements of other expanded Discover offerings within the last month in the UK, France, Germany, Norway and the Middle East.

Onboarding some of India’s leading media houses, content curators and entertainment studios, the Indian Snapchat Discover partners include news, current event, and cultural affairs commentary from Brut. India, HuffPost India, The Logical Indian, The Quint, and Vice India, featuring signature editions from each; social video and entertainment from Pocket Aces (FilterCopy and Gobble), TVF (The Timeliners, Girliyapa, and The Viral Fever), and QYOU (The Q India); music and cultural content from Saavn’s OnRecord; and Bollywood and beauty highlights from MissMalini Entertainment, featuring MissMalini and Beauty BFF.

Snap’s Discover partners will create made-for-mobile publisher stories and TV-like shows for Snapchat, across multiple genres. All content will be produced in an immersive vertical, full-screen format pioneered by Snapchat, which has since become the de facto standard for storytelling on mobile, inspired by the expressive way Snapchatters use photos and videos to talk with their closest friends. The time spent watching Shows on Snapchat globally has more than tripled since the beginning of the year and in Q3 of this year 21 unique Shows in Discover reached a monthly active audience of over 10 million viewers.

Each media partner will independently create their own editions. Discover first launched on Snapchat in January 2015 with 18 brand partners and now includes over 100 globally.

Advertisers can also take advantage of several ad formats alongside this new premium content, including tiled Story Ads, which are displayed in the Discover feed; Snap Ads, which are full-screen ads that run within Publisher Stories; and Commercials, which are six-second non-skippable video ads that run in Shows. They are available through Tyroo, Snap’s local sales partner, and also Snap’s self-serve Ads Manager, both of which offer several ROI benefits including advanced targeting, robust measurement, and price efficiency.

“We are delighted to now offer a more customized Discover experience for the millions of daily Snapchatters in India, welcoming many of the media brands they already know and love,” said Rami Saad, Head of International Content Partnerships, Snap Inc. “We are passionate about providing Snapchatters with the best content experience on mobile, featuring a diverse mix of credible, local voices alongside some of the best content creators from around the world. By engaging with our growing and creative community in India, most of whom are aged 18-24, these amazing local partners will be able to inform and entertain this hard-to-reach audience in powerful ways that are native to our platform.”

"Snapchat Discover presents an exciting opportunity to showcase our journalism. Brut produces edgy, compelling stories in creative formats for an audience that has long stopped consuming the news on traditional platforms. Snapchat Discover allows us to tell stories that matter to our viewers while keeping a playful tone," said Sruthi Gottipati, Editor-in-Chief, Brut. India.

"We are delighted to partner with Snapchat in bringing HuffPost to new audiences around the world. Our India edition is a strategic priority and we have grown our reputation through ground-breaking coverage of data privacy stories like the failings of the Aadhar system and the #MeToo movement in Bollywood. We continue to invest in world-class journalism in India and Snapchat’s announcement gives us the opportunity to reach an exciting new audience and elevate our content using a different mode of storytelling,” said Aman Sethi, Editor-in-Chief, HuffPost India.

"I always say that you have to go where the party is! Snapchat is growing in India, and many of our younger MissMalini fans love the platform because of its unique communication style. We are looking forward to connecting with our followers in a different way as one of Snapchat India's Discover Partners and making MissMalini content more accessible to everyone. It's a fun and engaging app and we are keen to explore, and connect with our existing followers and add new ones to our tribe!" said Malini Agarwal, Founder, MissMalini Entertainment.

“This initiative aligns with our mission of solving boredom for India’s youth. With our mobile focus and strong community, which consumes and shares our content, we are uniquely positioned to produce cutting-edge short-form content for Snapchat. We love some of the work that Snapchat has done with its product and we will work closely with the Snap team to provide Indian users with engaging and unique content,” said Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita, Founders, Pocket Aces.

"We are delighted to be among the select few publishers that Snapchat has decided to onboard amongst their first Discover partners in India. It is an association we cherish, and we look forward to wonderful synergy from readers and reviewers alike. We look forward to delivering newsworthy content to the Snap community," said Abhishek Mazumdar, Co-Founder and CEO, The Logical Indian.

"The Q India continues to focus on working with the top digital creators in India to offer amazing programming for Young India. We can't think of a better platform than Snapchat to help deliver our shows to their rapidly growing audience that clearly lives for original digital programming," said Sunder Aaron, GM and Co-Founder, The Q India.

“The Quint has always believed in experimenting with innovative new formats to converse with its young users. In fact, we have used Snapchat formats and Lenses to create content. And we now see Snapchat Discover as yet another reason for creative experiment and new ways to reach our interactive readers,” said Ritu Kapur, Co-founder and CEO, The Quint.

“At TVF, we believe that creating content through multiple touch-points goes a long way in fostering an engaged relationship with viewers. Content consumption in a vertical viewing format is catching up amongst the youth and creating originals in this format is a whole new ball game that we at TVF are aiming to explore with Snapchat. This partnership is a perfect opportunity for us to collaborate with like-minded partners and create content that is appreciated and enjoyed. Starting tomorrow, viewers will be able to consume three of our shows “What a player,” “Gossip Girl” and “Style Wagon” on Snapchat. That’s not all, we have a great content slate lined-up over the coming weeks on Snapchat, becoming one of their biggest strategic partners in India. We truly believe that all the shows have something for everyone and the content will be loved by the youth,” said Karan Chaudhry, President and COO, TVF.

“Launching on Snapchat is a natural addition to the all-inclusive youth-focused ecosystem we've been building since Vice India’s full-scale launch earlier this year. Snapchat offers a valuable millennial-first platform for some of our best work – examining and celebrating the diverse realities of what it means to be young in today’s world. Vice has some of the most engaged Discover channels in other global markets and we believe we will have a similar impact here,” said Samira Kanwar, Head of Content, Vice India.