Snapchat Spectacles

Snapchat is no longer just an app.

- Rob Marvin

In fact, the company isn’t even called Snapchat anymore. The newly rebranded Snap Inc. has officially moved into the hardware business, announcing its $130 Spectacles, a pair of colorful sunglasses with a built-in camera for recording 10-second, first-person videos with the tap of a button.

The Snap portfolio now includes two products: Snapchat and the Spectacles wearable, broadening the startup’s marketability beyond the traditional software-only definition of social media. But after years of user growth and much trial and error, a long-term business model is finally coming into focus while Snap’s user base continues to expand. In a keynote during Advertising Week in New York in October, Snap Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Imran Khan stated that the company now has more than 60 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada, about a third of the 175 million counted by Facebook in the region.

Snap plans to generate revenue through a three-pronged strategy: native advertising with between-snap ads and sponsored geofilters; content generation through My Story, Live Stories, and its news-focused Discover tab; and now, hardware sales with the Spectacles. When you look at the rebranded Snap Inc. website, the first description you see is: “Snap Inc. is a camera company.”

SPECTACLES: THE NEXT BIG-KIDS TOY CRAZE? 

Snap Spectacles are coming sometime this fall, according to The Wall Street Journal, and the smart money would be on a launch right around the holiday season. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel referred to Spectacles as a “toy,” and that’s no accident. The moment I saw them, I thought, every kid will be wearing one of these next summer.