Snapchat Stories Available To Developers; Ecommerce Surges 25%

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True Story

Snapchat is finally letting developers integrate its flagship Stories format outside the app. “The social media giant hopes that expanded access to its content and flagship features on other apps will increase its user base – and maybe its bottom line,” Axios reports. That said, it’s a baby step. The only four launch partners are Triller, Squad, Hily and Octi. The dating app Tinder and Houseparty, a video chat app, are also on the docket for Stories integrations. It’s been more than two years since Snapchat first announced plans to distribute Stories posts to third-party apps. One motivator could be TikTok, which sends its videos wherever, each with a TikTok watermark that helps improve name recognition and makes the app seem more mainstream – people who have never seen the TikTok app interface know the company because TikTok posts fly around Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other media.

Ecommerce Pulse

The world is embracing ecommerce at a faster pace since the onset of COVID-19. Overall, ecommerce grew 25% year over year in March, with daily grocery delivery doubling during the period, according to data from Adobe Analytics. Grocery now accounts for 8% of all ecommerce shopping, up from 6% three years ago. But people aren’t just relying on delivery. Buy online, pick up in store orders soared 62% between Feb. 24 and March 21, Bloomberg reports. In terms of what’s moving, computer sales increased 40% between March 11 and March 25 compared to the same 10-day period last year, and at-home fitness gear saw a 55% boost during the same period. Apparel sales, however, were down 13%.

Ad Out

News Corp sold its coupon advertising business News America Marketing (NAM) to private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners for about $235 million in cash paid out over five years. News Corp will keep 5% of the business, and over the next five years has options that could add another 10%, The Wall Street Journal reports. News Corp has been publicly shopping NAM since last year, to focus its investments on content and real-estate services. It’s also not the first advertising subsidiary News Corp has spun off this year, following Tremor’s acquisition of the outstream video advertising company Unruly. In that case, News Corp received a 7% stake in Tremor, a publicly traded company. So News Corp does seem a bit nostalgic for its former businesses.

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