When Snapchat launched their “lens store” on November 13, 2015, they had high hopes for increasing the revenue of the business, which had recently been valued at $16 billion. [Whether or not that figure is fair, is yet to be determined] If you don’t already know, Snapchat allows users to purchase filtered lenses (which they can keep for a lifetime) for $0.99.
Typically, 2-3% of app users will take the plunge to make an in-app purchase and with Snapchat’s 100+ million daily users, these lenses could mean $90+ million in sales per month. For a company that profited only $3.1 million in 2014, that figure is pretty impressive.
Another in app purchase Snapchat offers to its users is the ability to replay a Snap up to 3 times for $0.99. This feature is a bit creepy to me and frankly, I wish you could block your followers from taking advantage of it.
Snapchat’s main money maker continues to be the revenue produced from brands using their Discover feature (at a rate of $100 CPM) and selling sponsored stories (which could cost up to $750,00) that allow brands and businesses to have their content served to Snapchat’s entire audience.
Snapchat has yet to release any data on the success of its newest in app purchases, but my hunch is, they need to go back to the drawing board and find more ways to profit off brands using Snapchat, like social advertising giant Facebook has done so incredibly well.
My vote for the new in app purchases looks a little like this (by the way, this one was free): 
