Snapchat Discover goes overseas, lands 8 partners in France

Snapchat, which is opening a new office in Paris, revealed that it has eight million French DAUs

Snapchat Discover, the part of the app that features channels based on media partnerships, is going international for the first time.

French media partners are joining Snapchat Discover, marking the first time Discover has been localized in a non-English speaking country, a Snapchat spokesperson has confirmed to VatorNews.

The company already has eight partners in the country, including Le Monde, Paris Match, L’Equipe, Melty, Cosmopolitan, Vice, Konbini and Tastemade.

Launched in January of 2015, Snapchat Discover is the company's collection of media partnerships featuring original content. Some of its partners in the U.S. include ESPN, Comedy Central, Daily Mail, Food Network, National Geographic, People, Yahoo News, CNN, Vice and Warner Music. Each one will feature photos, videos and other long form content, which lasts for 24 hours.

Discover currently has 100 million monthly users around the globe. 

The spokesperson also confirmed that the company will be opening a new office in Paris at the beginning of October, and that Emmanuel Durand will be joining as General Manager in France.

He joins Snapchat from the Warner Bros. Entertainment Group where he was Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Data & Innovation for France and Benelux Prior to this, Durand was CEO at L’Oreal in Switzerland and held director-level roles at Sony Music and Universal Music.

Snapchat already has 8 million daily active users in France, a number the company has never release previously, and it is looking to take advantage of the growing userbase. 

“Since January 2015, Discover has been a place for Snapchatters to explore Stories from expert editorial perspectives. Starting today, Snapchatters in France will for the first time have French content to explore on Discover," Nick Bell, VP of Contentat Snapchat, said in a statement provided to VatorNews.

"We’re delighted to have Le Monde, L’Equipe, Paris Match, Melty, Konbini, Vice, Cosmopolitan, and Tastemade as our partners, each bringing something unique to our growing audience in France.”

This is far from the first time that Snapchat has included French content on the app.

For example, Paris regularly features in Live Stories, where compilations of Snaps taken by Snapchatters in Paris are viewable by Snapchatters in Paris. Live Stories allow Snapchatters to contribute their unique points of view to the same Story, creating a community narrative. One recent example was the popular music festival Rock En Seine.

Snapchat also ran a billboard campaign inspired by the Community Geofilters created by Snapchatters in France, and it has localised a number of its features into French, including more than 200 Stickers which can be used in Chat or added to Snaps.

With the launch of Discover in France, it begs the question of what other markets may be on the horizon. When I asked, however, the Snapchat spokesperson would only say that she was "not going to comment or speculate about future markets and future plans."

(Image source: huffingtonpost.com)