Tech Brief: Instagram and Snapchat Duke It Out With New Shoppable Ads

Instagram and Snapchat are ramping up their commerce platforms with new ads, the companies announced today. While Instagram's is a new Shoppable tag, a shopping bag icon that appears on Instagram Stories, Snapchat is bringing a similar Shoppable Snap ad (an extension to its lens ads) that can be run on the Discover page or in between Stories, allowing users to purchase stuff or tickets to events without even having to leave the app (assuming the websites have implemented 1-click pay, Apple Pay or Google Pay). The bigger question is: Does anyone really want to buy tickets (or anything) via Instagram or Snapchat? Apparently, yes!

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