Business Loans: Instant Alert: Snap sees an early boost after unveiling its biggest redesign ever

Your Message Subject or Title

Snap sees an early boost after unveiling its biggest redesign ever — but quickly turns red

by Seth Archer on Nov 29, 2017, 10:33 AM

Snap announced its biggest app redesign ever that clearly separates personal content from that of brands and celebrities.
Users and investors have voiced confusion about the app layout before.
Watch the price of Snap move in real time.

Shares of Snap spiked by more than 2% in early trading on Wednesday after the company released the biggest-ever redesign of its app, which it detailed at Business Insider's Ignition. The stock has since given up those gains and is now trading lower by 2.17% at $13.31.

On the company's third-quarter earnings call, CEO Evan Spiegel said the company was working on a major revamp of its Snapchat app, which is set to be released to some users later this week. The aim of the new design is to separate personal content from friends and content from brands and celebrities.

Historically, Snap has faced criticism over its app's confusing layout, which had to be explained in the company's regulatory filings when it went public. The redesign leaves all personal conversations and content on the left of the main camera screen, while all branded and celebrity content will live to the right of the camera.

The move is also a sort of reversal from Snap. The company is now embracing a content feed that many competitors like Instagram and Facebook have championed. The brand feed on the right of the app will only source content from verified celebrities and Snap's content partners. The feed will be algorithmically sorted to surface content it thinks the user will like the most, but the content will all be approved by Snap employees.

Spiegel laid out his vision for the redesign in an op-ed in Axios and put his social media peers on blast.

"The personalized newsfeed revolutionized the way people share and consume content," Spiegel wrote. "But let's be honest: this came at a huge cost to facts, our minds and the entire media industry."

Snap shares are down 20% from their initial public offering at $17.