????和所有大學(xué)生一樣，埃文?雷喜歡使用表情符號(hào),。但讓他惱火的是,，沒(méi)有什么表情符號(hào)能夠讓他向圣母大學(xué)的同學(xué)表達(dá)自己對(duì)該校橄欖球隊(duì)?wèi)?zhàn)斗的愛(ài)爾蘭人的自豪感。于是,，他和肖恩?歐布萊恩一起創(chuàng)辦了一樁小生意,，以彌補(bǔ)這一空白。這款名為T(mén)extPride的產(chǎn)品從體育和娛樂(lè)世界中獲得圖像授權(quán),，然后將其打包成貼紙出售。比如,，在Kik這樣的短信應(yīng)用中,，用戶(hù)可以花1.99美元買(mǎi)一包迪斯尼電影《冰雪奇緣》的貼紙。

????TextPride是一門(mén)不錯(cuò)的生意,，就是規(guī)模太小,。與此同時(shí)，短信應(yīng)用市場(chǎng)正在爆炸式增長(zhǎng),。Facebook公司斥資190億美元并購(gòu)了WhatsApp,，這款產(chǎn)品的每月活躍用戶(hù)現(xiàn)已達(dá)到7億人。擁有2.5億注冊(cè)用戶(hù)的應(yīng)用Tango目前市值15億美元,。Kik擁有2億注冊(cè)用戶(hù),。Snapchat價(jià)值100億美元，擁有一億用戶(hù),。Kik贊助的一項(xiàng)新研究表明,，美國(guó)用戶(hù)現(xiàn)在花在短信應(yīng)用上的平均時(shí)間要多于社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)應(yīng)用,。不過(guò)唯一的問(wèn)題是，這些短信應(yīng)用需要找到賺錢(qián)的手段,，目前廣告主還沒(méi)找到靠譜的方式插入朋友間的聊天之中,。

????這也是短信應(yīng)用獨(dú)有的棘手問(wèn)題。在消費(fèi)內(nèi)容時(shí),，我們希望廣告乖乖待在一邊,。沒(méi)人想在聊天時(shí)突然有條廣告蹦出來(lái)。雷表示：“人們?cè)诹奶鞎r(shí)最不想看到的就是打斷對(duì)話(huà)的廣告條或彈出式廣告,?？赡苓@在非個(gè)人的網(wǎng)絡(luò)上還管用，但在短信中,，人們最?lèi)阑鸬木褪强吹絺鹘y(tǒng)廣告,。”

????在出售給Facebook前,，WhatsApp一直特別反對(duì)植入廣告,。該公司首席執(zhí)行官讓?庫(kù)姆在自己桌上一直貼著聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人布萊恩?阿克頓留下的一張便條，隨時(shí)提醒自己牢記公司的核心價(jià)值觀(guān)：“不要廣告,！不要游戲,！不要宣傳噱頭！”這樣一來(lái),，短信應(yīng)用只好想出別的創(chuàng)意,。比如Tango就在用戶(hù)的短信“收件箱”里插入廣告。中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭騰訊公司旗下的短信應(yīng)用——微信,，則通過(guò)游戲,、貼紙（類(lèi)似于表情符號(hào)）和移動(dòng)購(gòu)物等方式謀取賺錢(qián)之道。Kik則提供一種被一些人稱(chēng)為“聊天廣告”的功能,，用戶(hù)通過(guò)它能和幽默網(wǎng)站Funny or Die及電影信息網(wǎng)站Moviefone這類(lèi)品牌運(yùn)營(yíng)的聊天程序進(jìn)行交談,。

????上周二，Snapchat推出了一種名為Discover的服務(wù),，Vice,、CNN和《人物》雜志等媒體可通過(guò)它在Snapchat發(fā)布視頻內(nèi)容。已經(jīng)有幾個(gè)頻道推出廣告服務(wù),，要價(jià)可不便宜,。據(jù)《廣告周刊》報(bào)道，Snapchat的廣告標(biāo)價(jià)是每天75萬(wàn)美元,。

????還是說(shuō)回TextPride吧,。雷和歐布萊恩發(fā)現(xiàn)，用戶(hù)很喜歡各種品牌授權(quán)的表情符號(hào),，他們相信廣告主肯定希望非常便捷地通過(guò)一家供應(yīng)商來(lái)進(jìn)入多種短信應(yīng)用,。但他們也明白,，這充其量只能占到這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)的一半份額。對(duì)運(yùn)動(dòng)隊(duì)這類(lèi)大名鼎鼎的品牌來(lái)說(shuō),，用戶(hù)是愿意為這些貼紙埋單的,。但那些不知名的品牌就需要自己掏錢(qián)來(lái)擠進(jìn)這個(gè)圈子了。

????TextPride已經(jīng)改名為Swyft Media,，并推出了一個(gè)能將新品牌表情符號(hào)和貼紙推送到短信應(yīng)用中的新平臺(tái),。各大品牌需要為此付費(fèi)，一如傳統(tǒng)的廣告推廣活動(dòng),。

????最近的一個(gè)例子是：當(dāng)格溫?史蒂芬尼發(fā)布新專(zhuān)輯《 Spark the Fire》時(shí),，Swyft公司即時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)免費(fèi)貼紙包，在自己的幾個(gè)短信應(yīng)用中推出,。它被下載了近一百萬(wàn)次,，并在用戶(hù)中傳送了七百萬(wàn)次，最后在10天內(nèi)被觀(guān)看了4100萬(wàn)次,。雷表示,，對(duì)任何品牌來(lái)說(shuō)，要在其他渠道達(dá)到這樣的廣告效果,，需要花上5萬(wàn)到25萬(wàn)美元,。

????格溫?史蒂芬尼的廣告在好幾個(gè)應(yīng)用上同時(shí)推出，其中就有總部位于硅谷的短信應(yīng)用Tango,。Tango主要通過(guò)用戶(hù)收件箱里的廣告賺錢(qián),，但它已采用了Swyft的平臺(tái)，該公司廣告和平臺(tái)副總裁理查德?拉百特表示,，這類(lèi)廣告非常契合人們使用Tango的方式,。一年前，Tango決定不再賣(mài)貼紙了,，因?yàn)橄蛴脩?hù)要錢(qián)總會(huì)帶來(lái)很多摩擦,。拉百特稱(chēng)：“在人們溝通過(guò)程中放上一道‘留下買(mǎi)路錢(qián)’的大門(mén)絕不是我們希望帶給用戶(hù)的體驗(yàn)?！彼?，就由Swyft來(lái)提供這種廣告吧,。

????現(xiàn)在,，Swyft一半的收入都來(lái)自于為格溫?史蒂芬尼制作的這類(lèi)廣告。雷表示,，Swyft每月收入的增長(zhǎng)幅度在50% 到100%之間,。另一半就來(lái)自銷(xiāo)售貼紙——主要是靠知名運(yùn)動(dòng)隊(duì)和《怪物史萊克》這樣的娛樂(lè)品牌授權(quán)。

????Swyft有50家短信應(yīng)用合作伙伴,，包括Kakao Talk, Facebook Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger和 Line,。這種合作讓這家只有11個(gè)人的小公司能接觸到25億注冊(cè)用戶(hù),。隨著利用短信應(yīng)用賺錢(qián)的辦法不斷演化，這家年輕的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司已探索出一條可讓各大品牌擠進(jìn)人們聊天領(lǐng)域的生財(cái)之道,。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

????審校：任文科

????Like any college kid, Evan Wray loved using the tiny pictograms known as emoji. But he hated that there was no emoji to express his Fighting Irish pride with fellow University of Notre Dame students. So, alongside co-founder Sean O’Brien, he built a modest business on that disconnect. TextPride, as it was called, licensed images from brands in the sports and entertainment world and sold them as sticker packs. Within a messaging app like Kik, users could buy a packet of stickers for Disney’s Frozen for $1.99, for example.

????TextPride was a fine business, but a tiny one. Meanwhile, the market for messaging apps was exploding. Facebook FB 0.61% bought WhatsApp for $19 billion; that service now has 700 million monthly active users. Tango, an app with 250 million registered users, is worth $1.5 billion. Kik has 200 million registered users. Snapchat, worth $10 billion, has 100 million users. A new study, commissioned by Kik, shows that U.S. users now spend more time on average in messaging apps than they do on social networking apps. The only problem? These messaging apps need ways to make money, and there’s no reasonable way for advertisers to wedge themselves into conversations between friends.

????This is a thorny issue that’s unique to messaging apps. We expect ads to live alongside content we consume. We don’t expect them to crop up in our one-on-one communications. “The last thing you want in a personal conversation is a banner ad or pop-up that interrupts that,” Wray says. “It might work with more impersonal networks, but specifically within messaging, people hate traditional ads.”

????WhatsApp had been particularly ad-averse before its sale to Facebook. CEO Jan Koum kept a note from co-founder Brian Acton taped to his desk to remind him of the company’s core values. It read: “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!”

????So the messaging apps have gotten creative. Tango, for example, inserts ads within a user’s messaging “inbox.” WeChat, a popular Chinese app that is owned by Tencent, makes money through games, stickers (which are similar to emojis), and mobile commerce. Kik offers a feature that some are calling “chatvertising,” where users hold conversations with chat-bots powered by brands like Funny or Die and Moviefone.

????Snapchat on Tuesday launched Discover, a section of its app where media outlets including Vice, CNN andPeople magazine can publish video content within Snapchat. Already several of the channels feature ads, which aren’t cheap. According to Adweek, Snapchat ads cost $750,000 per day.

????But back to TextPride. Wray and O’Brien saw the way users eagerly engaged with their branded emojis, and believed advertisers appreciated the convenience of using one vendor to get many different messaging apps. But they realized that that was only half of the business. For certain established brands like sports teams, people will pay for stickers. But other, unknown brands would pay just to be included.

????TextPride changed its name to Swyft Media and launched a platform that pushes emojis and stickers from new brands into messaging apps. Brands pay for the privilege, as they would with a regular ad campaign.

????A recent example: When Gwen Stefani launched her new album Spark the Fire, Swyft created a free sticker pack and distributed it on several of its messaging apps. It was downloaded almost a million times and sent between users seven million times, resulting in 41 million impressions in 10 days. Such campaigns cost anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 for brands, Wray says.

????The Gwen Stefani campaign ran on several apps, including Tango, the Silicon Valley-based messaging app. Tango earns money on ads within a user’s inbox, but it has adopted Swyft’s platform because the ads are in line with the way people already use Tango, says Richard Rabbat, vice president of Advertising and Platform at Tango. A year ago, Tango decided not to sell stickers, because asking users for money creates too much friction, he says. “Putting a payment gate in the way of communication is not the right experience we want to give to our users,” Rabbat says. Ergo, ad campaigns from Swyft.

????Swyft now makes half of its money from ad campaigns like the one for Gwen Stefani. Swyft’s revenue has increased between 50% and 100% each month, Wray says. The other half comes from selling stickers—typically licensed from sports teams and entertainment brands like Shrek.

????Swyft works with 50 different messaging partners, including Kakao Talk, Facebook Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger, and Line. The partnerships give the 11-person company access to 2.5 billion registered users. As the strategies for monetizing messaging apps evolve, the young startup has carved out a way for brands to inject themselves into the conversation.