Snapchat wants to follow Netflix with ‘Original’ micro series
Snapchat is still very popular in the US, but the social media company is developing. We do not know exactly yet what, but they certainly have plans. That turned out when they announced this week that a whole line-up of shows is going to appear on the service. Some of them are scripted, others are not, but all are being promoted under the name “Snap Originals” in the app from now on. You will also encounter them more often in the Discover page of the app.
Snap was already working on own content, but these new series are the first to be fully scripted and also prominently displayed in the app. The Discover page is even adapted to make clear which videos have been made by Snap itself and the rest of the videos made by other partners. They even get priority over the other content in the ‘for you’ section.
What can you all look at on Snapchat?
The shows that are now on show vary a lot. ‘Endless Summer’ is a reality series that follows two influencers in Laguna Beach, California. There is also the scripted ‘Class of Lies’ series about two ‘true crime’ podcasters who discover that one of their friends is missing. Also scripted is ‘Co-Ed’, in which two roommates who have just started their college education are followed.
There will be three other shows at the end of the month, including “Good Luck America” that deals with the state of America at this time and what you can do about it. According to Snap, there are still six that have received the green light, but still have to be made. All the series are about five minutes per episode and have between eight and 12 episodes. Series 2.0, taking into account the attention span (or rather the lack thereof) of the young viewer. Of course, the series are also enhanced by advertising in between, which you can not skip as a viewer. The good news is that the commercials are up to six seconds long.
Another business model for Snapchat?
We have yet to see if these microseries will catch on with the users of Snap, but if they do, they would just have a new source of income at Snap. In addition, they could profile themselves much better as a serious content partner for (short) video makers. It has not really participated in the service lately, with the disastrous redesign and the general decline in users.
Snapchat needs something to stop the glide towards the abyss and maybe this is it. Who knows? Perhaps it will soon turn out that hardly anyone has the patience to watch another series that takes half an hour per episode. If Snapchat was the first to have the smiles, they can take advantage of it, and otherwise, they have at least another way to stay above water.