{"id":6993,"date":"2017-06-26T07:07:10","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T07:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/snapchat-acquires-social-map-app-zenly-for-250m-to-350m.html"},"modified":"2017-06-26T07:07:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T07:07:10","slug":"snapchat-acquires-social-map-app-zenly-for-250m-to-350m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/snapchat-acquires-social-map-app-zenly-for-250m-to-350m.html","title":{"rendered":"Snapchat acquires social map app Zenly for $250M to $350M"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Snapchat\u2019s newest feature, Snap Map, is based on its latest acquisition, social mapping startup Zenly. TechCrunch has learned that Snapchat has bought Zenly<\/a> for between $250 million and $350 million in mostly cash and some stock in a deal that closed in late May. Snapchat will keep Zenly running independently, similar to how Facebook lets Instagram run independently.<\/p>\n

Zenly\u2019s app lets users see where their friends currently are on a map using constant GPS in the background. People can then message these friends in the app to make plans to hang out.<\/p>\n

The Paris-based startup\u2019s app has 4 million downloads according to Sensor Tower<\/a>, with 28% from France but also sizeable numbers in Asia including 12% in South Korea and 8% in Japan. The app is mostly used by teens trying to keep up with their friends around town, at school, or at concerts and other events. Zenly had raised $35.1 million<\/a>, including a $22.5 million Series B<\/a> in September 2016 led by prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark.<\/p>\n

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Zenly\u2019s social map on the left looks extremely similar to Snapchat\u2019s new Snap Map on the right\u2026 because Snap acquired Zenly<\/p>\n

This morning, Snapchat launched its Snap Map<\/a> location-sharing and location-based content discovery feature. It works slightly differently, only pulling your location when you open the app, but otherwise looks so similar to Zenly that we suspected Snapchat had copied it.<\/a> Sources told us\u00a0Snap expressed acquisition interest, but Zenly initially rejected them.<\/p>\n

After more digging, we\u2019ve learned from sources close to the deal that Snapchat did in fact acquire Zenly. A Zenly terms of service change on May 25th may be related to the deal. A Snapchat employee has also been spotted<\/a> retweeting people congratulating Zenly\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n

Rather than shutting down Zenly and folding it into Snapchat, Snap Inc. will allow Zenly to run somewhat autonomously. We asked Snap, but it declined to comment, and Zenly hasn\u2019t returned our inquiries. Instead, here\u2019s TechCrunch\u2019s interview with Zenly CEO Antoine Martin<\/a> at Disrupt London last year.<\/p>\n

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With both Snap Map and Zenly, Snap Inc. is hedging its bets in the social content space. Because its Snapchat Stories feature is being aggressively copied by Instagram and Facebook\u2019s other apps, Snapchat is wise to expand into the social utility space of helping people meet up offline. Now Snap could own two different apps on people\u2019s home screens.<\/p>\n

Making plans with friends involves a high degree of intent \u2014 about what people want to eat or do \u2014 there are plenty of advertising and partnership opportunities down the line. You could imagine restaurants, movie studios and more hoping to hit Zenly or Snap Map users with ads as they plan to go out with friends.<\/p>\n

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Zenly\u2019s app features<\/p>\n

While $250 million to $350 million may seem like a lot to pay for Zenly, Snapchat has seen many of its other expensive acquisitions turn out well<\/a>. It bought Looksery for $150 million in cash and bonuses, which went on to power its iconic augmented reality face filters. It bought Bitstrips for $64.2 million, which has flourished as Snapchat\u2019s Bitmoji personalized avatar stickers. Story Search, QR Snapcodes and its Spectacles glasses were all based off its acquisitions of Vurb, Scan.me and Vergence Labs, respectively.<\/p>\n

Zenly doesn\u2019t seem to fit with Snap\u2019s mission to be a camera company. But buying an app for meeting up with friends could let Snapchat own the path to doing the things worth capturing on camera.<\/p>\n

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Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/npjIR5yfa34\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snapchat\u2019s newest feature, Snap Map, is based on its latest acquisition, social mapping startup Zenly. TechCrunch has learned that Snapchat has bought Zenly for between $250 million and $350 million <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-6993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t