Snapchat has unveiled a major new feature, dubbed 'SNAP Map'. The new feature enables users to track down their friends in real time, thus not missing out on any events taking place in their area.
So what's all the fuss about?
The $250 - $350 million purchase of French startup, Zenly, has resulted in the birth of Snap Map. TechCrunch was the first to notice the striking resemblance between Zenly's map and Snap Map. Later that day, the publication confirmed that Snapchat had acquired the company. The precise timeline of when the deal was inked is not currently known.
Furthermore, Zenly is quite popular in Europe, with over two million downloads and seventeen thousand Google Play reviews. Zenly has primarily attracted teenagers. The particular demographic is quite fond of the app since it lets teens know of any cool events or hot parties happening near them, that their friends might be attending as well.
In fact, the start-up had raised over $35 million from Silicon Valley, even with funding coming from one of Twitter's earliest investors. Though, it needed to team-up with a dominant social network, in order to expand its outreach.
While there is a number of tracking apps around, Zenly has managed to gain popularity so rapidly due to its remarkably intuitive platform and the fact that is very power efficient.
The latter constitutes the most important parameter for its success, as the majority of these apps are battery killers. Zenly, on the other hand, determines a friend's location only when the user is looking for him or her.
Furthermore, if the investment does fall in between $250 - $350 million, then it would earn the distinction of the most expensive acquisition in Snapchat's history.
It would even surpass the $200 million purchase of Placed, an advertising tracking start-up. The deal also entails that Zenly will be able to operate its app independently.
At the time of writing, both Snapchat and Zenly have declined to comment.
Is there any difference between Zenly and Snap Map?
Through Snap Map, Snapchat has adopted Zenly's virtual map, so there aren't any notable differences between the two.
The map shows nearby events, such as concerts, political rallies, breaking news and so on. Users can tap on the events to see if any of their fellow Snapchat friends have shared pictures or videos from them.
