WorldStarHipHop Launches Snapchat Channel With Studio71
WorldStarHipHop is debuting on Snapchat’s Discover, with the digital video network teaming with Studio71 to produce a regular stream of news and original content for the platform.
Starting Monday (Sept. 10), WorldStarHipHop will release 5-15 pieces of content each weekday at 6 a.m. ET on its new Publisher Story on Snapchat’s Discover section coproduced with Studio71. Each edition will feature hip-hop news, memes, viral videos and interactive formats designed to entertain and drive discussion.
“WorldStarHipHop is an audience machine, and they have a voracious audience,” said Reza Izad, CEO of Studio71. The new content on Snapchat will “further expand the familiar WorldStarHipHop experience that explores the cultural conversation of what hip-hop is today.”
Studio71, owned by Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, began working with WorldStarHipHop about 10 months ago, starting out to help develop the audience for WSHH’s YouTube channel. Since signing with S71, WorldStarHipHop now generates around 600 million views per month (up threefold) and gained 7.7 million subscribers to bring its overall count to over 15.8 million subscribers.
Some of the content on WorldStarHipHop’s Snapchat Publisher Story will be repurposed from its existing trove of user-generated content. Snap will handle ad sales for the WSHH channel.
“Our partnership with Studio 71 bridges the gap between content aggregation and content creation, which we couldn’t be more excited about,” Ed Dwyer, CEO of WorldStarHipHop, said in a statement.
WorldStarHipHop, founded in 2005, has a controversial legacy with violent viral videos among its most popular content. The video site was founded by Lee “Q” O’Denat, who died in January 2017.
The Joe Hodorowicz, Studio71’s VP of talent, manages the partnership with WorldStarHipHop. For WorldStarHipHop, the executive producer for the Snapchat content is Tristan Hill, who previously has worked at BuzzFeed. WorldStarHipHop is represented by WME.
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