SnapChat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that the popular photo messaging app will soon feature advertisements, Techaeris reported.
According to the CEO, the decision to partner with marketers was prompted by investors encouraging him to turn SnapChat into a profitable company. The advertisements will serve as the first source of income for SnapChat.
Spiegel explained the advertisements will be non-targeted, which means advertisers will not base their ads according to the preferences of users. Instead, the ads will be combined with the photos and videos that they share through the app's SnapChat Stories feature.
The co-founder noted that users have nothing to worry since marketers will not collect their personal information, according to Fortune.
"People are going to see the first ads on SnapChat soon," Spiegel said. "We're cutting through a lot of new technology stuff around ads to sort of the core of it, which I think has always been telling a story that leaves with a new feeling."
"They're not fancy," he added. "You just look at it if you want to look at it, and you don't if you don't."
Despite Spiegel's assurance that the ads will not infringe users' personal information, former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg cautioned Spiegel about the current issue regarding ads on social networking sites.
The technology entrepreneur and ex-politician also told Spiegel to be wary of emerging competitors that could overtake his app's popularity among users, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"His [Spiegel's] challenge is always going to be somebody else comes up with, instead of SnapChat, a Chatsnap, and then he's got to find ways to not only keep his technology better but to stay au courant, to be in fashion," Bloomberg said.
"People use it because people use it," he added. "How you get into that virtuous cycle is to some extent luck, to some extent really a unique product, to some extent being in the right place at the right time."
Although Spiegel said he had already made deals with marketers, the CEO did not specify when the ads will appear on SnapChat.