Yahoo Finance Is Snap's (SNAP) Lens Fest Going to Evolve the AR Industry?
Snap SNAP shares have lost 80.2% of their price year to date. The company has been badly hit by declining ad revenues due to ongoing uncertainties in the market. However, the company is benefitting from the strength in the adoption of augmented reality (AR) lenses.
Snap recently announced its fifth Lens Fest, which is a multi-day global virtual event exploring the new dimensions of AR and celebrating the lens creator community that shapes the future of AR.
Snap reports that its AR ecosystem is expanding, with over 300,000 AR creators and developers who have contributed to more than 3 million AR Lenses.
It has further collaborated with a small group of creators and developers who are building Lenses with digital goods, including power-ups, AR items, and extra tools within a Lens, which can be unlocked by snapchatters using Snap Tokens. These lenses are expected to be rolled out in a few weeks in specific locations.
To keep fueling innovations in AR, Snap has also announced a new Lensathon event, which will challenge creators to push the boundaries of AR and create lenses beyond it for a prize pool of $200K.
How is Snap Planning to Disrupt the AR Industry?
As fashion and AR technology join hands, Snap takes this opportunity to enhance its AR for the use of shopping.
Snap created a range of AR lenses for Vogue World’s New York Fashion Week runway show, wherein attendees could capture looks from designer brands including Dior, Burberry, Christopher John Rogers and Bode, and could then access virtual versions of the designs and try them on using Snap AR technology.
Snap also introduced a new digital fashion collaboration with Swedish fashion retailer H&M, which allows users to select outfits designed by H&M, strike a pose, and share their favorite digital looks.
Snap Inc. Price and Consensus
Snap Inc. price-consensus-chart | Snap Inc. Quote
Snap partnered with Amazon AMZN as well to let snapchatters experience the new Snapchat try-on Lenses that feature thousands of eyewear products from brands including Maui Jim, Persol, Oakley, Costa Del Mar and many more that customers will be able to explore, shop and digitally try-on.
This creates an indulging and exciting shopping experience for buyers. Snap reports more than 250 million snapchatters who have been engaged with AR shopping Lenses since January 2021.
Snap joined Walmart’s WMT Walmart Connect in September as an innovation partner, enabling advertisers to buy Snap ad units through Walmart Connect and reach the latter’s large and engaged audience through its video and augmented reality ad formats.
These extensive product offerings have deepened the engagement of its global community, which increased 19% year over year to reach 363 million daily active users in third-quarter fiscal 2022.
Besides this, Snap has been aggressively focused on developing AR glasses for many years now. Though there isn’t an update on it, the company has had hundreds of developers from 30 countries in the last two years who have experimented with the next generation of Spectacles, building hundreds of lenses right in Lens Studio.
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is determined to achieve success with its AR glasses and though this looks a little far-fetched right now, it will be a remarkable and growth-driven achievement for the company once accomplished.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Snap To Face Competition in The AR Industry
Per GlobeNewswire, Augmented Reality (AR) Market Size is expected to hit $461.25 billion by 2030. This wide market size has let many players jump into the industry along with Snap, the biggest being Meta Platforms META.
Meta is eyeing to usher in the metaverse as it is planning to build the metaverse as an independent e-commerce platform. To do so, it is investing heavily in augmented and virtual reality space, which could revolutionize how e-commerce works and could fill the gap between e-commerce and in-store shopping experiences.
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