Dive Brief:
- Snapchat is cutting its local Stories feature, which curates user-generated videos taken in cities, Bloomberg reports.
- Snapchat plans to refocus on a strategy that emphasizes video around live events like holidays and sporting events.
- The move comes as Snapchat is actively analyzing its offerings and strategy ahead of an anticipated IPO. The Information reports that Snapchat is in talks with investment bankers over filing an IPO later this year or early next.
Dive Insight:
As Snapchat continues its rapid ascent in the social media universe, the video-sharing platform is shedding daily local stories in favor of live events and content deals. Snapchat has been in talks with major TV studios about developing exclusive content for the app, and recently inked a deal with NBCUniversal to bring reimagined, mini-versions of its TV shows to the platform.
Its unclear what Snapchat's live events features will look like, but a focus on sporting events would put it in direct competition with Twitter. Twitter has been actively pursuing live events through major deals with pro sports leagues to bring live streams of games to its platform.
The move to cut local Stories comes shortly after Facebook's Instagram launched a new Stories feature that provides its users with a Snapchat-like experience. Instagram Stories offers users a place to share and view images and video in a slideshow format; the images and videos disappear after 24 hours and don't appear in profiles or news feeds. Instagram differentiates its Stories from Snapchat Stories through an algorithm that recommends Stories, whereas Snapchat pushes users to find and follow accounts on their own. While initially touted as a Snapchat-killer, Instagram's Stories feature has not yet hurt Snapchat's core user metrics, according to four third-party data providers that spoke with Buzzfeed.