Snapchat's 10-Year Popularity — Pursue & Persuade

By: Patrick McTiernan

This independent blog is centered around the now-ten-year-old social media platform, Snapchat.

Background History on Snapchat

Founded in 2011 by Stanford University students, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, Bobby Murphy
July 2011, “Picaboo” was the precursor … “Snapchat” was officially launched in September of 2011.
Just one year into its existence, Snapchat was churning out over 50 million “snaps” daily on a consistent basis. At this moment the app was limited to photos or videos less than or equal to 10 seconds.

In 2013, Snapchat introduced Stories and chat. 24-hour story by the user-programmed to disappear after 24 hours. This story platform was mirrored by competing social media platform, Instagram, this shows competitors using KPIs to their advantage and adapting to what the audience would like.
The next year, 2014, Snapchat introduced “Our Stories” for venues or hot/trending locations (e.g. Coachella, Live Sporting Events, Snapchat mobile activity on December 31st for NYE in locations like New York City, Barcelona & Sydney. Snapchat soared to newfound popularity near the end of 2014.
75,000,000 monthly users by the turn of 2015.
By 2018, Snapchat had made it publicly known that <99% of the revenue brought into the company was ad revenue
Companies paid for Snapchat users’ attention … KPI studying taught them to know where these Snapchat users, and potential commercial consumers, are looking.

Statistics on Snapchat over Years

Snapchat’s daily user average statistic has increased every other quarter since Q4 2018 (September - December of 2018)
Currently, 265 million active daily users according to statistics from Q4 2020… September to December of 2020. This figure is nearly 75% of the modern American population, an estimated 330,000,000.
73% of all internet users between the ages of 18 to 24 (Gen-X) used this app at least once in the past two years. This 18 to 24 demographic, which many college students fall into, is their leading age demographic.

Age Bracket Statistics from 2019 Survey

Gender States 2021

Ap users as of January 2021 … 57.4% female and 40.9% male
1.7% of users refused to identify as one of these two genders
Snapchat’s continuous retrieval of user data leads them down a path of better understanding the user, their interests, what sells and doesn’t sell, and which advertisers may benefit the greatest from marketing toward that specific demographic of the mobile social media user.

Snapchat Revenue Statistics

Snapchat managed to double its revenue between Q3 2019 and Q4 2020 … think how pandemic may have presented greater outlets of opportunity for a platform like Snapchat.
COVID-19 saw businesses take on major loss in demand for in-person shopping, human-to-human interaction, traffic to city/suburban shopping malls, and so on …
In 15 months, total revenue jumped from $446M to $911M
Average Revenue Per User … APRU | Vary from continent to continent.
North American Snapchat User yields the highest APRU over Europe or users on another continent
$4.42 to $7.19 in North America. The current Average Revenue Per User (NA) is $7.19

Snapchat Moving Forward

Social media platforms like Snapchat continue to adapt in how they attract and engage their independent users. In their ability to adapt and evolve, as you have read over this past decade, you should trust Snapchat as much as other platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) when deciding on how you should market your brand through social media.

Snapchat Popularity Over The Decade