Are Media Companies Building Another House of Cards on Snapchat?

By: Mathew Ingram | GigaOM

If there’s an “It Girl” in the online-media space right now — a single company that sums up the current landscape, for better or worse — it would have to be Snapchat. The four-year-old company is the platform everyone wants to be seen with, whether it’s Vice News using it to post a 10-minute documentary on Bitcoin, or Madonna featuring a video from her new album. But what exactly do media companies get out of this? Is it a potential share of future revenues (assuming they appear)? Is it exposure to new users, and especially much-sought-after millennials?