Rumor: Snapchat will show news and videos

Snapchat is working on a feature to show news, videos and ads at the same time. At least that’s what an American business newspaper reports. The three-year-old start-up is looking for ways to monetize its large group of users.

The feature would be called Snapchat Discovery and will be introduced in November, The Wall Street Journal claims based on anonymous sources. Snapchat is said to be in talks with several media companies to provide content to the service, including the English tabloid newspaper Daily Mail.

Users would be able to view articles and videos in Discovery mode in the same way as normal snaps from friends. The functionality would also be intended to show advertisements to users. Snapchat has been valued at $2 billion from investors and Facebook is reportedly willing to pay $3 billion for the app, but the service has yet to find a way to monetize it.

Figures that Snapchat has released in conversations with advertisers, according to The Wall Street Journal, would show that users send 500 million snaps together and that users use the app on average fourteen times a day. Half of the app’s users are between the ages of 13 and 17; a group that is difficult for advertisers to reach.