Snapchat Update Adds On-Demand Geofilters For Anyone To Create And Buy Starting At $5

You get a filter, and you get a filter! Once only available to brands and a special few selected by Snapchat, the app introduced a feature Monday that lets anyone create a geofilter, stickers that can be added to images based on a user’s location, for the starting price of $5.

Snapchat is advertising the feature as special add-on for a party, wedding or business. In a demo video, a girl created her own filter for a birthday party, and guests could add that to photos snapped throughout the event. The filter is then accessible to Snapchat users in an area of 20,000 to 5,000,000 square feet, depending what the person pays for. The filter is priced based on distance and time available.

These on-demand geofilters, with design, geofence and time period, must be sent to the Snapchat team and approved. The approval process will take about one business day, the company estimated. Snapchat employees need to make sure that it meets design and technical standards.

This feature is Snapchat’s latest effort to generate revenue from the app, which has been valued at $15 billion. Snapchat sells video ads, sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses that have been purchased by movie studios and presidential contenders, for example.

Gatorade created a sponsored lens for the Super Bowl that garnered over 100 million views. The sponsored geofilters are reportedly cost between $250,000 to $750,000.

Prior to this update, Snapchat users could create a geofilter and send it for approval. The Snapchat team could then choose to make this filter available to the entire Snapchat community. “We’ve been blown away by the creativity of the Snapchat community, and we’ve loved watching the personality of each place emerge through your artwork,” Snapchat wrote in a blog post about the update.

About 500,000 community filters have been submitted, Snapchat reported.This additional feature was requested by the Snapchat community. Snapchat has more than 100 million daily active users. “We initially designed Community Geofilters for public places — but we kept hearing from Snapchatters who wanted a Geofilter for their business or private event,” Snapchat wrote.

People who purchase the on-demand geofilter will be able to see a dashboard of how many total views and total uses it has. The on-demand option will not be available where there are Live Stories for events or sponsored geofilters.

On-demand geofilters will be available in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The Los Angeles based company is privately-held and funded by more than $1 billion in venture capital rounds.