I would be quite confident to say that out of everyone at Shorthose HQ I would be the top Snapchat user. I don’t know what it is about adding a cute bunny filter to photos, discovering new geo illustrations and sharing 10 second videos with friends that draws me in. Combine that with a Snap Streak competition with my younger sister and best friend, not a day goes by where I don’t click the little yellow ghost to log on.
I’m definitely not the only one. Although a LITTLE older than their target market I’m still within the largest proportion to use the app. Out of 158 million daily users 37% are 18-24 years old and we are sending 2.5 billion photos each day.
It’s no surprise that anyone and everyone would look to harness the opportunities Snapchat offers. It has taken the market by storm but for those that are keeping a keen eye on the social media landscape, what has become apparent is that as well as Snapchats swift rise to prominence there’s been an even faster rise of Snapchat copycats.
First up there was Instagram Stories, then Whatsapp Status and finally Messenger Day, all owned by the same company (Facebook) who’s offer of $3 billion to buy the model was declined.
Facebook has been extremely bold in rolling out these updates to their platforms, cloning all features of Snapchat including being able to scribble on photos, adding stickers to geolocations and the most obvious – photos and videos which disappear after 24 hours.
We explored how and why Instagram copied Snapchat a couple of months ago and it seems that the same reasons stand for the latest round of updates – Facebook want to attract different markets. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that and we are all for it but we’re also all for truly inspiring people with an idea and a product so different they couldn’t bear to miss out!
