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Snapchat’s product is booming

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Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#91
post #66

I wonder how many people here are aware of Snapchat's thriving underground OnlyFans-like ecosystem. I also wonder how much of that is driving Snap's user metrics. As far back as 2014, I remember there being a huge ecosystem of "premium" snaps (sometimes known as "prem(ium) girls"), whereby you would pay the account owner a one time or recurring fee for access to a "premium" snapchat account where the owner posts nude…

It's kind of still amusing to me that Snapchat ever moved beyond being a niche platform like that. Heck, I might still have an account, but the only reason I ever did was around 2012 or so when I first divorced and started seeing women again, they offered to send nudes, but only via Snapchat. What other purpose could a service that let you send disappearing pictures serve? It was clearly for sending nudes. Watching them become a VC darling and totally rebrand to something for kids was surreal.

I'm kind of sad at your scenario, though. Receiving pictures from someone I actually got to meet and go on dates with was quite a bit more personal and fulfilling than subscribing to a mass semi-public feed from a professional adult performer. Pros always have to ruin everything.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#92
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess thats nice because its cross platform. But do they also use iOS' built in Find My app?

I think what those groups like about Snap Maps is that it can show not only where your friends are but what they're doing. Imagine if you were having drinks at a bar and a friend posted a snap of them doing the same just a few blocks away -- I'd reach out to meet up with them.

yeah I like that aspect of Snap Maps too but it lacked usefulness when everyone stopped using it no matter how densely populated the area was or where my friends are. I'm glad to know people are using it again and posting relevant snaps.

Protip: for those not looking for their own friends specifically, you can/could use snapmaps without a snapchat account, just in your browser and see the feed of whats happening in the heatmap.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#93
post #59

Social media has low barriers to entry. Several new entrants have grown super-fast and have overtaken incumbents. Facebook was very clever to identify and buy up some of these fast-growing new entrants. This holds lessons for the people who want free speech in social media. There are at least 10 social media apps/sites that say they practice what Elon Musk says should be the norm: Anything legal is allowable speech o…

Compelling product > advertised speech philosophy.

Are there any serious social networks who overtly advertise as anti-free speech? Making speech the hook when the site looks like a third-rate ripoff of Twitter isn't a winning strategy.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#94
I wish Snapchat had kept its momentum among my friend groups.

I much prefer social media where you explicitly choose who to send things to. It feels way more personal than the usual model where you post to your whole network on some public feed. I enjoyed taking a picture/video of something interesting, then quickly choosing which friends would find it amusing. It felt like I was saying, "I think that YOU will like this!" rather than "SOMEONE will like this". And if the recipient wanted to reply, that conversation was one-on-one and more personal.

There were other perks too: taking/sending snaps was pretty quick, their ephemeral nature lowered the bar of what you'd send (in a good way), the filters could were fun, and recipients could review snaps at their leisure.

Sadly only one or two of my friends are still active on it.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#95

I really don't buy this. Almost all of my friends, who were prolific snap users in college, have converted away to instagram. Stories are so dead, and despite adding people most of my stories get the same ~15-20 views per 24 hours period. That's all very anecdotal, and so is my next point: I get a new bot or porn spam account adding me once or twice a week, some of which have large karma counts indicating they've bee…

How many views would you expect for your stories? 15-20 people caring about what you just did seems good to me on the surface

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#96

I really don't buy this. Almost all of my friends, who were prolific snap users in college, have converted away to instagram. Stories are so dead, and despite adding people most of my stories get the same ~15-20 views per 24 hours period. That's all very anecdotal, and so is my next point: I get a new bot or porn spam account adding me once or twice a week, some of which have large karma counts indicating they've bee…

What's your age group? There are very few people under 25-30 who use Instagram. Everyone I know younger than that is religiously on Snapchat and TikTok.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#97
Lots of people showing their age in this thread. The discussion is essentially "I and my social group don't use Snapchat therefore their numbers are fake". If you go talk to people under 25 you will see a very different picture. Snapchat and TikTok are dominating the social media landscape.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#98
I always cheer for Snapchat just because of the courage it took to turn down Zuckerberg's $3 billion offer in 2013.

If you compare Evan Spiegel to Kevin Systrom (Instagram founder), Spiegel is 6 times richer and he didn't have to kowtow to Zuckerberg for all those years. Hopefully that's a lesson to founders to go for it, build something real and don't sell out.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#99
post #98

I always cheer for Snapchat just because of the courage it took to turn down Zuckerberg's $3 billion offer in 2013. If you compare Evan Spiegel to Kevin Systrom (Instagram founder), Spiegel is 6 times richer and he didn't have to kowtow to Zuckerberg for all those years. Hopefully that's a lesson to founders to go for it, build something real and don't sell out.

It's not as straightforward a comparison. Instagram is still worth 3-5x more than Snapchat today. It's not obvious that they would have seen the same growth had they stayed independent.

Re: Snapchat’s product is booming

#100
post #66

I wonder how many people here are aware of Snapchat's thriving underground OnlyFans-like ecosystem. I also wonder how much of that is driving Snap's user metrics. As far back as 2014, I remember there being a huge ecosystem of "premium" snaps (sometimes known as "prem(ium) girls"), whereby you would pay the account owner a one time or recurring fee for access to a "premium" snapchat account where the owner posts nude…

I haven't paid attention to Snapchat at all because my assumption was that the OnlyFans type ecosystem made up the majority of the platform's content.

I assume half of Reddit is only fans type content too.
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