On Wednesday, October 10th, 2018, Snapchat announced its new offering of original shows called Snap Originals. These scripted shows are set to debut over the next few months. Snap Originals are the company's iteration of serialized TV shows made for the phone. They will be a few minutes long and shot in the vertical format. This move is an effort on Snapchat's part to engage with its current audience and attract new users. Through word-of-mouth marketing, Snapchat hopes its current users enjoy the content enough to share it with others, potentially attracting new users.

Relying on current data, Snapchat believes its new offering of a dozen original shows will help the social media platform regain lost users and attract new ones.

The company has poured its efforts into the app's Discover tab to make it an attractive place to view videos on the phone. After its first show, 'Good Luck America' debuted, Snapchat partnered with numerous channels including NBC, Discovery, the NFL and the NBA to produce original content. These shows helped lure viewers and its current offering of 18 shows reached at least 10 million people monthly. Moreover, viewership of shows has more than tripled since the start of the year.

This growth holds a bright promise for Snapchat's future to carve its way into the arena of scripted shows.

If successful, these shows will grow Snapchat's user base and help it regain relevance.

Snapchat will be partnering with established companies in the film and movie industries in the hopes Snap Originals will be more successful than Instagram's IGTV. Unlike IGTV, Snap Originals will be produced by professionals rather than opening up longer video-recording times.

Yet, Snapchat has faced a series of shortcomings in the past few years which might be a setback for this venture.

Earlier in August 2018, Snapchat's interface underwent a massive redesign, much to the dismay of most users. As a result, Snapchat faced intense backlash and experienced user loss for the first time since going public. Admitting it wouldn't "be easy to gain them back" going forward, Snap Inc. conceded and pressed rewind on the redesign. Yet, user loss persisted.

Snapchat still faces increased competition from both Facebook and Instagram and falling user counts despite redesign and original content from partner companies. Moreover, the company has seen a large number of executives depart which has left it on uneven ground.

In the midst of declining users, Snapchat will have a harder time reaching its goal of profitability as outlined by CEO Evan Spiegel. Analyst Michael Nathanson does not see Snapchat reaching its profit margins without massive spending cuts. Moreover, he too sees the competition from Facebook's Stories feature and sees the hurdle of attracting new users as too costly for the company.

Only time will tell if Snapchat's new offerings are successful or not.