Snap’s BIG announcement (hint: 👾)
Yesterday, Snap debuted “Snap Games,” its new platform that lets you play live multiplayer games, at its first-ever partner event in Los Angeles.
The first game is called “Bitmoji Party,” a Mario Party-syle game where your Bitmoji avatar competes with up to seven friends in a series of mini games (like staying balanced on a giant record as a DJ scratches).
The games platform comes after Snapchat's 2017 acquisition of PrettyGreat, an Australian game company founded by the creator of Fruit Ninja.
Some initial reactions to Snap Games on Product Hunt:
“Every communication app that hits significant scale seems to eventually adopt games, including Facebook, Messenger, LINE, WeChat, and more recently Houseparty with their first title, Heads Up.” - Ryan
“Does it feel like MySpace to anyone else or was I the only one that played those games?“ - Marcus
Indeed, the new gaming platform comes as Snap finds new ways to generate revenue. These games will be free to play but users will opt-in to watching six-second unskippable ads that reward them with in-game power ups.
According to Snap's own metrics, it has 186 million daily active users — with 90 percent of 13-24 year olds in the U.S. using Snapchat. The company also stated yesterday that their advertising reaches more users in that demographic than Facebook or Instagram. And with a long-standing emphasis on privacy, Snap may be positioning itself to excel in an area where its biggest social competitor does not.
While Snap's 2018 redesign was a bit of a disaster, Snap Games marks a return to its roots — the app is fun again.
Something worth noting: Snap shares rose 1.1% yesterday.
Snap also launched a redesigned in-app camera aimed at creators who design their own AR lenses. Snap also said that its Stories product would soon become available for developers to use in their own apps. Tinder and Houseparty have already agreed to include Stories in their products.
Product News! 😻
Diabetics can now track their blood sugar by asking Alexa. India's OYO expands to Japan with SoftBank partnership. Digital strength training system Tonal raises $45M. Tesla is rolling out new Atari games. Bumble launched a magazine.
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