This week's flash event debuted with new strategies … and a modified Evan Spiegel

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Spiegel, who does not often talk about the strategies of society or his personal life, presented himself in a new light to himself and society at the first summit of Snap's partners on Thursday.

Dressed in a typical Silicon Valley outfit – in this case, a black hoodie, black jeans and shiny white sneakers – Snap's CEO has walked freely around the event held in Los Angeles. Angeles, which put forward announcements of new products and activities. Spiegel mingled with attendees, primarily developers, press, advertisers, and content partners, and tested some of Snapchat's latest augmented reality features in its demonstration areas.

Unlike many leading tech companies, he made himself accessible to the crowd without a group of handlers.

This opening reflected the changes that had taken place in his business, long considered a walled garden. Snapchat has no news feed where users can share external links or content. Everything has happened within the limits of the application and publishers wishing to create content must be validated and approved by the Snap team.

At the event, Break (BREAK) announced a way for its own advertisers to reach for the first time users outside the Snapchat application with its new instant audience network. He hopes this marks a new era that will allow advertisers to expand their field of action and offer new revenue opportunities to Snap.
For example, a clothing brand could now use Snap Ads to reach a target demographic outside of Snapchat – a tactic on other platforms like Twitter (tWTR) and Facebook (FB) already done. But Snap says that the tool will not compromise the privacy of the user.

Snap also announced a new feature called Application Stories that allows Snapchat users to post videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours on other sites and apps for the first time. This means that Snapchat users will be able to post a story directly in their Tinder profile as of this summer. The moving could encourage more users to post stories or to register for the Snapchat app.

"Stories are an interesting way to experience content and create a closer and more authentic connection with the person or entity behind that content," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "So for Snapchat to extend stories outside the walls of its application, it's easier for people to use them even when they're not on Snapchat."

Snapchat speeds up advertising and promises to be more respectful of privacy than Facebook

Snap is facing stagnant growth in the number of users and increased competition from Instagram, which has managed to emulate some of Snapchat's most popular features. The Instagram version of Stories has recently reached 500 million daily users, compared with 186 million daily users in total. Snap is looking for new ways to attract users and increase brand awareness and engagement. This week's ads might help.

Snap is not only faced with the challenge of trying to grow the number of users, it must also prove that it is possible to become profitable after pretty significant losses. Spiegel has an "ambitious goal" to become profitable in 2019.
Since Snap's release in March 2017, Spiegel has acknowledged that he needs to better communicate updates about his company. At the Vanity Fair's new institutions summit in 2017, he said: "One of the things I've underestimated is the extent to which communication becomes more important to investors."

Spiegel took advantage of Thursday's event to spread some of the priorities and strategies of the company, not only to investors, but also to its users.

After the controversial overhaul of last year's Snapchat app, which separated content from his friends and publishers, Spiegel told CNN Business that he had since learned to be more open to big product changes. Some users have been upset by the new interface and have abandoned the application.
In 2015, Spiegel told Bloomberg Businessweek: "These are the kinds of questions I hate dude" when he was asked about his long-term vision for the company. But maybe this week has ushered in a new Snap and Spiegel.

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