Popular photo-sharing network Instagram has fuelled rumours that it is working on a new service to rival the likes of Snapchat – by unintentionally leaking it in its own banner ad.
Online news providers have reported on the leak, identifying the service’s new app as ‘Bolt’, with the advert describing it as a “one tap photo messaging” app. The ad also included a link to the Google Play store where users could download the service.
However, it is believed that the link did not lead anywhere and the whole advert was taken down shortly afterwards.
Instagram is owned by networking site Facebook, which had a $3 billion offer for Snapchat declined in 2013. This is not the first time that the social platform has attempted to bring out a rival version of Snapchat; as a result of the failed bid to purchase the company, it developed and released Slingshot in June this year.
As Facebook owns Instagram, Bolt will add to the site’s ever expanding portfolio of messaging apps and services when officially released, which now includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Slingshot.
This type of service has clearly been identified as a useful internet marketing strategy to boost its revenue, with the company having ambitious plans to monetise messaging services through other means besides advertising; the Californian enterprise experienced some difficulty in its first efforts to introduce ads on Instagram.
At the present time, neither Facebook nor Instagram have made a comment on the subject.
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