Snapchat, did you know?

      I had a discussion with a friend few weeks ago about Snapchat and we ended up with a very interesting conversation that we didn’t conclude. So I thought of brining it here to share it with my circle.

     Don’t worry if you are not a user of snapchat or you don’t understand how it works, you are not alone! But you are probably over 30, this is what they say in social media! I would say you are over 35, just to make sure I am still included in the millennial gang :)

Let me start with what is Snapchat: 

      It is referred to as photo messaging application for self-deleting photos. Well that was at the beginning, and then it became self-deleting videos. And lastly, self-deleting stories (photos/videos that get deleted after 24 hours from the time it was taken). 

      From a user journey prospective, you click on the ghost icon on you phone. It takes you to a camera view screen. You press on the circle just once for a picture or you continue pressing for a video. Then you click on the arrow at the lower right side of the screen and select the people you want to send it to (your friends) or make it your story. If you make it your story, everyone who follows you will be able to see it for 24 hours. This is the basic and the most common user behavior in Snapchat.

FACTS: 

Product releases (I included only major features) 

• July 2011, first attempt by launching the app as Pictaboo. Didn’t pick up!
• September 2011 was the first official release for snapchat - only pictures.
• December 2012, video sharing begins.
• Oct 2013, snapchat stories released.
• Nov 2014, first monetization through sponsored story from Samsung.

Funding:

• April 2012, they got a seed of $485,000 from Lightspeed venture partners on a $4.25 million Valuation.
• Feb 2013, raised $13.5 million Series A led by Benchmark Capital on a $70 million valuation.
• June 2013, raised $80 million Series B at a valuation of about $800 million
• Dec 2014, raised $485 million from 23 investors at a valuation of at least $10 billion
• May 2015, raised $200 million series E at a valuation.
• May 2016, raised $1.8 Billion series F at a $17.5 Billion Valuation.

    Source: Crunchbase 

Userbase: 

• May 2012, Snapchat is processing about 25 images a second.
• Oct 2012, users are sharing about 20 million images a day.
• Feb 2013, users are sending over 60 million snaps a day.
• April 2013, 150 million snaps are shared per day.
• Sept 2013, 350 Million snaps are shared per day.
• July 2015, 410 Million snaps are shared per day.
• April 2016, 800 Million snaps are shared per day.

   Sources: TechCrunch and wikipedia

OPINION: 

Why is it popular among Millennials?

Millennials have learnt through the use of Facebook and other social media platforms that what goes on the Internet stays on the Internet, which limits the freedom of expression. They figured that Snapchat solves this problem. The self-deleting videos and images sent to the people you select is the solution. Instead of taking sometime to dress up for an Instagram selfie, you just snap yourself with you pyjamas and send it to your friends (This is for direct snaps in my option). For the “story”, my observation is that people are trying to look at their best as it stays for 24 hours.

Stats: 30% of Snapchat users, use it because their parents don’t use it! :)

But guess what, the image is shown only 10 seconds for a maximum of 2 times and then disappears. This takes us to the second reason, which is “challenge”. Snapers are challenged to view the content with a limited time so they need to be alert and fast. This triggers them to respond fast too. Either now or never!

Stats: 35% of Snapchat users, use it because their content disappears.

                                                                                                                             Source

Simplicity is the 3rd reason. With only one click you generate your video and with another you share it with specific friends or as your story.

Then comes the exciting filters and augmented reality, which is very unique in Snapchat. In my opinion, it is the first version of AR that has reach and used by millions of people on a daily basis.

So I think that Snapchat is fast, fun and easy to use application.

What are your thoughts?