With Snapchat fast gaining traction with young mobile users, News Corp Australia has jumped to a first place on the Discover news tool.
Huge visitor numbers are being reported with Snapchat formats including the Our Story feature, comparable with those of high-rating TV programmes.
Curated news stories on Discover, tailored for mobile, target a young audience with brands including CNN, Daily Mail, Yahoo! and Vice also in the January launch. Popular with 18-34 year-olds, Snapshat is estimated to be reaching more than 100 million active users every month.
News.com.au general manager Julian Delany says News is using the very visual platform as a "full-screen, creative canvas for storytelling". Users can swipe through five to ten stories daily, each headed by a top snap from which readers can scroll down to read the full text. While it will not drive viewers directly to the news.com.au desktop and mobile websites, it will be "a useful tool" in bolstering awareness. "I guarantee most Snapchat users aren't newspaper readers," he told The Newspaper Works.
While expectations for traffic were not especially high, other users have noted spectacular audiences for Our Story clips - which last 24 hours before disappearing - with one viewed almost 25 million times.
Gigaom has also reported a Snapchat screenshot of a contribution to New York's Snowmageddon Our Story had 25 million unique views while users took a screenshot of it 5000 times.
Snapchat did not confirm the figures, but says those sent to users who get a snap into a story are accurate.