Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, confirmed that the company’s messaging app will soon feature advertising, as it looks to finally grow its revenue.

Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Spiegel said the ads will be optional to view and appear as part of the new ‘stories’ product. Unlike the current Snapchat messages that are deleted once they have been viewed, shared stories will last for up to 24 hours.

The addition of advertising to Snapchat is not a huge surprise, with reports in August that such a move was on the cards.

Sources said the app maker held discussions with advertisers and media companies about developing a new service called Snapchat Discovery, which will also allow users to read daily editions of publications and watch video clips within the app.

In addition, the company is known to have hired former Facebook executive Mike Randall to leads its advertising partnership programme earlier this year.

Snapchat was recently linked with an investment from Yahoo which would confirm the $10 billion valuation that followed news of an investment from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers.