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Snapchat’s product is booming

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Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#42

I don't mean this to be mean, but do people really believe these active user counts at face value? I personally see these numbers and assume half are bots or controlled marketing accounts to boost viewers or spam comments. Just going off personal experience using these sort of apps.

Don't get the flowery speak for a platform that is objectively the world's largest distributor of cp.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#44

Serious question, who actually uses Snapchat? I haven't heard it mentioned anywhere in at least six months.

I am 25 and from my observations of social media-active people I connect with that were born and are living in the US, it's a split between instagram and snapchat. Many are active on snapchat stories and instagram.

My observation is that that IG is more popular with urban, liberal, artistic (people create and/or sell art), style-oriented, older audience. It feels more professional and public, and it's common to follow accounts like celebs, artists, businesses, or generally people you haven't met in person. Artistic and lifestyle people will use IG chat to communicate and connect. For example a yoga studio or music venue may post events there. It feels like it's taking the role of a more image-oriented facebook. The stories are very popular too.

Snapchat is (in my observation) more popular with midwestern/rural/suburban people, and the network is more friends of friends or maybe people you met at parties. It's much more casual and it's more likely you have met the people you connect with. Trendy urban people I have met have shunned it for a while and think it's childish, but some are coming back. Either way it's the primary way I communicate with certain contacts besides imessage/sms (mainly through the chat). I'll post something to a story and someone will comment on it or vice versa.

Anecdotally snapchat was very popular in high school and early college and then waned, but became more popular again recently for some reason (I'm getting more and more views on my stories than before even though I'm not adding friends that frequently). Also when I talk to foreigners, they see it as a childish thing that was a fad in the 2010s, but people in the US (especially suburban types) are very active on it and have been for a while.

I'm bullish on snapchat and it's my largest "fun"/risk investment in a single company because of the stickiness it has with people my age and younger, specifically in a more midwestern rural/suburban demographic. Also the snapmap feature is phenomenal and will be the next thing other tech companies start imitating.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#45
post #9

What I've noticed in the past two years... my daughters friends mother had it on her phone, her daughter showed my daughter the app when we were having lunch. They were trying on 'masks' and various filters. The kids get a real kick out of it, and taking pictures of the adults. My wife installed it on her phone, and likewise when we have met other families the kids have done the same. It's not used for any messaging…

I find Snapchat app to very complicated and cluttered. I guess it's just me. FB has almost cloned Snap's features into Messenger and Insta. So, do you think - Snap's UX is still far better?

I honestly don't care about their UX as no one I know uses it. It's primary use in my "family life" is as a digital camera toy and for that purpose it's UX must not be that bad because my 8yo daughter is able to find the app, take photos with masks and filter she 'tries on' but not send them to anyone.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#46
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? They define a Daily Active User "as a registered Snapchat user who opens the Snapchat application at least once during a defined 24-hour period" in their quarterly report: Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001564408/000156459...

Snapchat has been more aggressive at push notifications (such as @xxx friend posted a new story!) to move more MAUs / WAUs into DAUs category. These strategies have been employed by other competitors as aggressive as well though. So it is probably still comparable. I would say Snapchat's metrics are more "authentic" a few years ago, but now it is more "comparable".

To be fair over counting users will affect ARPU as well, no free lunch (and we sorta saw that in the numbers this quarter tbf)

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#47

As a user of Snapchat since high school (now 25), I’m noticing a resurgence in my friends using the platform. I never left because I never joined Instagram due to my distain for Facebook. Snap is a great app to keep in contact with “real” friends. I only have groups with true friends and only watch my friends’ stories.

My teenagers use Snapchat regularly, and Snap Maps seem to be the "killer app" for them. It allows them to see which of their friends are around when they travel or are out and about on the weekends.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is in the article. Young people do. How old are you? No one I know uses it, but that makes sense to me. I'm internet-old now.

Right, I wasn't implying that I should be in the demographic or anything of the sort. I don't use TikTok either, none of my friends do, but I've heard it mentioned a zillion times (in the media, IRL conversations, etc) in the past year. Same with other big social platforms: reddit, youtube, discord, facebook, instagram, telegram, and so on. Snapchat? nada, I've heard nothing. So it comes as a surprise to me to hear t…

I would put Snapchat above discord and telegram for general public awareness, especially in main stream media coverage

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#50

I don't mean this to be mean, but do people really believe these active user counts at face value? I personally see these numbers and assume half are bots or controlled marketing accounts to boost viewers or spam comments. Just going off personal experience using these sort of apps.

Snapchat's userbase is more organic than most other social media platforms. I don't think I've ever seen a bot, and the "social circles" are much more private since it's less optimized towards meeting/finding new people. I'm sure there are still ways to profit from spamming or botting on snap but I can't really think of any. And not only is the social discovery potential pretty limited ( a part from celebrity account…

I don't really use Snapchat right now, but I constantly get spammed with friend invites from random "women" that I assume are fake accounts. Of course, Snapchat doesn't let you refuse obvious spam requests via notification (but they do let you accept them), so you have to open the app to clear the spam. A clear dark pattern and I would take these usage metrics with a huge grain of salt.
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