In a recent press release from Snap Inc. statistics show a 3 million person drop in the number of daily Snapchat users from 191 million at the beginning of 2018 to 188 million in June this year.
This huge decline was likely caused by a Snapchat update which caused even so-called “Queen of Snapchat”, Kylie Jenner contemplated staying off the app for good. As an avid Snapchat user myself, returning to Snapchat after only a few hours of being offline I was in disbelief to find the app I loved so much in utter disarray.
February 2018 Update
In February 2018 Snapchat underwent a major redesign to separate content from the media and celebrities from those we interact with on a day-to-day basis. This wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, however, squeezing stories and chat messages from friends into a single page resulted in a mess which was difficult for users to navigate.
It proved extremely difficult to find a single person who was happy with the new version of Snapchat, with users taking to Twitter to express their dislike of the new format.
@Snapchat ITS FEBRUARY 21 & WE STILL HAVE THIS STUPID UPDATE. BRING THE OLD VERSION BACK!!!
— Juan (@Juan___Castillo) February 22, 2018
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/Kennedy1042/status/966457407042936832
Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat said they were “separating the social from the media” with the update.
While the update definitely separated news and world events from day-to-day interactions with friends, it also became more difficult for people to find content from some friends. By removing the Stories page to leave a space purely for media and content from celebrities, it became difficult for users to find the Stories of friends who they didn’t chat with every day.
The BBC asked young people for their thoughts on Snapchat after the update. People complained about the app being difficult to navigate and struggling to find their friends Stories (pictures which can be seen by all of a user’s friends and last for 24 hours). Some also said that they just don’t care about celebrities.
Personally, I use Snapchat both to follow my favourite celebrities and stay in contact with my friends. However, following the update there was a lot of celebrity content that wasn’t chosen by the user.
Rob Kniaz, co-founder of the technology venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, gave his thoughts on the drop in users of the social app.
“I think it’s really dangerous. When you look at the numbers, if you’ve lost three million of your most active users by definition, it tells you something is materially wrong with the product and maybe the company.”
While some perhaps unwanted media content remains, Snapchat has made changes with the current version of the app to address some users’ concerns. One of the few features that Snapchat have kept from the February update is access to friends’ stories from the chat page. Fortunately, they have also been integrated into the discover page with celebrity and news subscriptions close by, ensuring that users don’t miss out on content. However, with Instagram Stories becoming more and more popular, the future of Snapchat is uncertain.
Instagram Stories
In June, Instagram announced its Stories feature alone was being used by 400 million people on a daily basis. Instagram Stories allow users to use augmented reality (AR) effects which are very similar to the “Lenses” that Snapchat offers.
Snapchat recently introduced “Snappables”, AR minigames which can be played between two users, one of few features which sets them apart from Instagram at the moment. However, just like Lenses, Instagram could easily create something similar.
While Instagram poses a clear threat for the future of the app, Snapchat’s Chief strategy officer Imran Khan still has a positive outlook, suggesting that the capability Snapchat has for targeted adverts will help the company to contiue to develop.
“Advertisers can currently leverage over a thousand different segments for targeting with thousands more coming. One good example is advertisers can target their Snapchat campaign to people who purchased lipstick at a retail store.”
However, as Snapchat gets better at this, it could lead to users feeling a little creeped out by just how much the company can learn from then when they use the app.
Evan Spiegel also said he was “excited” and “optimistic” about the future, focusing less on the decrease in daily users and highlighting an increase in the number of people using the app at least once a month and also that Snapchat is getting better at holding on to new members over the age of 35.
- by Erin Seils, Editor of Science and World
- Sources: Variety, BBC News, Independent, USA Today, CNN
