Snapchat announced that it will be closing its Lens Store after launching it only a few months ago.
Lenses allow users of the social media platform to take photos of themselves and then apply one of a handful of face filters to animate the picture.
The Lens Store was created as marketplace for users to buy new face filters, with each lens selling for just under 1 dollar.
Despite positive consumer feedback, Snapchat had to a make a business decision on whether or not it was viable to continue operating. Given the recent announcement it likely didn’t make sense to keep the store open.
Snapchat will focus on advertising instead.
Instead, the social media platform will focus more on its advertising business.
Snapchat will still feature sponsored lenses and a rotating selection of 10 free lenses for users to use.
If the Lens store was so popular, why did Snapchat close it?
The company claims that consumers were purchasing tens of thousands of lenses every day, with 10 million snaps using lenses on a daily basis.
However, it is important to note that Snapchat only has around 500 employees. Perhaps it was simply too much work to handle both its advertising and Lens Store business, prompting the firm to a make a difficult decision on which segment brings in more revenue – and close the other.
What will happen to the lenses I bought?
For consumers who are concerned about what will happen to the lenses that they bought there should be some relief to know that Snapchat said that they will still be usable.
