Ads have finally come to Snapchat.
The disappearing-message service began inserting ads into users' "Recent Updates" feeds for the first time this past weekend.
The ads will only play if you click on them from your feed -- they won't be inserted into your personal communications, a move Snapchat said would be "totally rude." They disappear after being viewed or after 24 hours.
"We want to see if we can deliver an experience that's fun and informative, the way ads used to be, before they got creepy and targeted," the Los Angeles-based company said in a blog post.
Related: Snapchat isn't private. Period.
Snapchat doesn't provide figures for its total user base, but the service is wildly popular. As of May, users were viewing over 1 billion stories and sharing more than 700 million snaps per day, the company says, up from just 350 million in October.
Snapchat recently engaged in funding talks valuing it at roughly $10 billion, and with that sky-high valuation comes the pressure to generate revenue.
"Understandably, a lot of folks want to know why we're introducing advertisements to our service," the company said. "The answer is probably unsurprising -- we need to make money."
