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You Could Be Paid To Post Snapchat Selfies With Products, Patent Filing Suggests (latimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sell-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes: According to Snapchat's latest patent filings, the company could begin paying users to post photos and videos. Los Angeles Times reports: "The filings reveal that Snapchat automatically could analyze annotations on an image, including text and digital stickers, to prompt users to place their image in a collective gallery. In other words, people who type some variation of 'Clippers!!!' on top of their photo during a Clippers basketball game would have access to a library of images related to the game. Especially intriguing, the company could use computer vision technology to identify objects in an image -- say, a Coke bottle -- to encourage a user to share the shot in a Coca-Cola-sponsored story. Contributors could walk away with cash through a flat fee or some other deal based on views or sales generated by the story. The idea in the patent filing also would give advertisers an official way to compensate people for creative posts, compared with the usual strategy of paying top users to turn their personal accounts into an ad. Other types of automatically generated galleries mentioned in the patent application include stories based on a time stamp, temperature or movement. People could definite their own categories too. Curation of the galleries could be optional, with object recognition and text analysis as potential ways to filter inappropriate submissions. Users who get into audio timeline could get paid too, the patent filing states."

22 comments

  1. Why does this need a patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    product placement is not new

    1. Re:Why does this need a patent by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      You didn't read even the blurb, there? It's not traditional product-placement: they scour through people's snapchat-pictures and if they can identify some products there they may offer the users money in return to being allowed to use them for advertising. In traditional product-placement the deal is made before the picture is taken, but here Snapchat is trying to find suitable material after the fact.

      Granted, it's still a silly patent and all, if it passes.

    2. Re:Why does this need a patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i thought snaps were supposedly private and self-deleting and all that, not archived by the company to datamine afterwords..... so how the fuck do they know what's in the pics?

    3. Re: Why does this need a patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Snapchat changed years ago. It isn't for privacy anymore. It's just an Instagram ripoff now. There was no way to stop the screenshot loophole anyways.
      Build an empire based on a fantasy, realise it's impossible then clone the competition. And now you know how business is done. Go, make billions.

    4. Re:Why does this need a patent by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      It's not traditional product-placement

      It's product-placement on the internet!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Oh Great by sunderland56 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Snapchat is already overloaded with dick pics; now people are going to get paid because they're modelling Trojans?

  3. It's coming! by alexhs · · Score: 1

    Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    1. Re:It's coming! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carl's Jr: Fuck you! I'm eating.

  4. If they were smart. by publiclurker · · Score: 1

    They would pay me to not take pictures with their products. I could buy a new house from not taking pictures in swimsuits alone.

  5. Yay! More advertising! by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Yay! Just what we needed- more astroturf advertising!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Yay! More advertising! by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      This article combines several of my favourite things to hate on: patents, advertising, and selfies. The only thing missing (but probably already contemplated by the designers) is a data whorehouse.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  6. How much per picture? by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    They spend millions trying to associate their product with happy, attractive people. How much will they pay me not to post a picture of their product next to my pasty-white basement-dwelling ass?

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  7. Brought to you... by andrew.starks9137 · · Score: 1

    ...by Carl's Jr.

  8. on the other hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then again, i could not join Snapchat, not make any selfies and not get paid for getting ads shoved down my throat. And that process is even patent-free!

  9. I pray this is used for good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To stop the Kardashians from posting more crap on the Internet!!!

  10. maybe it will be used for good? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to stop the kardashians from posting more crap to the internet.!!!

  11. Awesome by Afty0r · · Score: 1

    If this grows, this is great, it will do two possible things: 1] Make people more aware of paid product placement (educational, good). 2] Democratize paid product placement - instead of one account with a hundred million followers being paid ALL the ad money, instead a hundred DIFFERENT accounts with a million viewers each will split that money. And eventually a million small accounts with a hundred followers could - I'm sure there's a floor, but it's probably quite low, lower than YouTube videos. This empowers your average person, and decreases the power of huge celebrities - looks like a win-win to me.

  12. So now patently obvious "on a computer" patents... by TechNeilogy · · Score: 1

    ...are going to be replaced by patently obvious "using AI" patents.

    --
    "The wisdom of the Patriarchs was that they *knew* they were fools." --Master Foo