Dive Brief:
- Google is currently developing "Stamp," new technology that allows publishers to create visually-oriented media content similar to Snapchat’s Discover portal, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
- The tech giant is reportedly in talks with Vox Media, CNN, Mic, the Washington Post and Time Inc., to become part of the project expected to be officially announced this week.
- Stamp is part of Google’s ongoing effort to work with publishers on new features for its Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, project a company spokesperson told the Journal.
Dive Insight:
Facebook has a well-deserved reputation for successfully cribbing features from Snapchat and now Google appears to be adopting a similar approach, underscoring both Snapchat's tremendous influence on the mobile user experience and the difficulty new mobile platforms having competing against giants like Facebook and Google.
The Google Stamp news is another hit for Snapchat, which has struggled to prove its value since going public earlier this year, in part because the platform's innovations are being copied by competitors at a dizzying rate. Snapchat has also seen its user growth rate stall. On the positive side, younger consumers are frequently on the platform, something marketers targeting Gen Z should keep in mind.
The user experience for Stamp content is expected to include swipeable slides with text, photos and video just like Snapchat’s Discover content, according to the Journal.
Stamp is Google’s first overtly Snapchat-like technology and could be appealing to publishers for a number of reasons, including that content is likely to be tied to Google search and accessible via a publisher’s own digital properties. In comparison, content created for the Snapchat Discover portal is hosted on Snapchat’s app and exclusive to the portal.
Facebook also has a Snapchat Discover clone called Collections. Facebook's most notable example of copying Snapchat is its launch last year of Instagram Stories, which copies the basic user experience and even name from Snapchat Stories. Instagram's version continues to increase in popularity with 250 million daily active users compared to Snapchat’s 166 million daily users for the app overall.
