As an image-based messaging service with 10-second self-expiring photos, Snapchat may have rather questionable origins, but over the last few months the b-team social media startup has been undergoing a radical transformation that has taken it from paper-shredding sexting service to innovative media platform. With a dugout of companies like Vice and CNN already signed up for Snapchat’s brand new video and news content platform, we may be seeing the beginning of a whole new model of digital information sharing.
Among the slew of companies hedging their bets on Snapchat’s self reinvention is a millennial-oriented Latino content channel called Fusion, founded as a joint venture between ABC News and Univisión, that kicked off its vertical with series like Outposts, Weird Threads, and Off the Record. But while you may not have heard of any of these yet, Fusion has a new series in development that is guaranteed to catch your attention.
Vergaraland is being billed as a comedic look into the life and career of — you guessed it — Sofía Vergara, told through the point of view of her son, Manolo González Vergara. Co-produced by Sofía Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment, the short form series will doubtless serve as an flagship for Fusion’s vertical, which has already been expanding to include content in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
How this might actually look in practice is a matter of speculation, but with digital technologies and social media revolutionizing the audiovisual landscape under our very feet, the possibilities are virtually boundless. Hats off to Vergara who just got her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week, for showing the world that playing an air-headed Latina on network television doesn’t mean you can’t be a shrewd entertainment mogul in your off time.