After just two months of business , Snapchat has decided to close its lens store on Friday 8 January to focus on its advertising business . This decision has come as a surprise to many , as Snapchat 's lens store , which allowed people to make in - app purchases for the first time , proved very popular with users . However , Snapchat will continue to run its lens store on the platform with the paid lenses now appearing for free among the other free lenses . Sponsored lenses will continue to make appearances among the rotation of ten free lenses available to users everyday. As mentioned in yesterday 's note , Snapchat is pushing into digital advertising technology with the creation of an application programming interface ( API ) . This will mean that more call - to - action ads will start to appear on Snapchat , these will lead to app installation pages and product purchase pages . Advertising is a strong revenue earner for Snapchat , with the platform looking to attract their Discovery partners .
After just two months of business , Snapchat has decided to close its lens store on Friday 8 January to focus on its advertising business . This decision has come as a surprise to many , as Snapchat 's lens store , which allowed people to make in - app purchases for the first time , proved very popular with users . However , Snapchat will continue to run its lens store on the platform with the paid lenses now appearing for free among the other free lenses . As mentioned in yesterday 's note , Snapchat is pushing into digital advertising technology with the creation of an application programming interface ( API ) . This will mean that more call - to - action ads will start to appear on Snapchat , these will lead to app installation pages and product purchase pages . Advertising is a strong revenue earner for Snapchat , with the platform looking to attract their Discovery partners .