Snapchat will dip its toes for the first time in a foreign market by starting operations in Paris, France, making it the company's first attempt to offer its service in a new language other than English.
According to Bloomberg, Snapchat is used by 8 million people daily in France.
The company's Paris office will open its doors on Oct. 1. It will be led by Emmanuel Durand, a former member of Warner Bros. Entertainment where he held the position of senior vice president of marketing, data and innovation for France and Benelux.
Snapchat hopes that its French services help it establish an international footprint beyond its comfort zone in the U.S. Snapchat is currently growing faster than Facebook but has not shown the same dominance overseas. Snapchat at present has more than 100 million monthly users globally, which is still dwarfed by Facebook's monthly users of 1.7 billion people.
The company said it is working closely with eight French media outlets, including newspaper Le Monde, magazine Paris Match and sports publication L'Equipe, to help broadcast French content that they hope would appeal not only to Parisians but to all the French people.
The French content of the app will be accessible through its Discover service.
Bloomberg said in a statement that the Discover section of Snapchat's app will give users mobile content that has an expiry date of 24 hours and is curated by French media companies.
"Discover has been a place for Snapchatters to explore Stories from expert editorial perspectives. Starting today, Snapchatters in France will for the first time have French content to explore," Nick Bell, Snapchat's vice president of content, said in a statement.
According to the Irish Times, Snapchat needs to prove to investors that it can generate revenue and increase its bottom line through its international operations especially since the company has long been touted to have IPO plans. Snapchat was recently valued at $18 billion and is one of the most prominent unicorns of the tech industry.
