Snap seeks to evade Facebook’s shadow
NEW YORK — Facebook has been bent on copying Snapchat ever since the social media giant tried unsuccessfully in 2013 to buy what was then an ephemeral photomessaging app.
Now, the company behind Snapchat is bent on becoming more like its bigger rival — at least when it comes to success — by courting new users and with them, advertisers.
Snap Inc. is scheduled to report its first quarterly earnings as a public company on Wednesday. That’s just a week after Facebook reported solid first-quarter results, with double-digit revenue growth — as it has consistently since going public in 2012. Analysts expect Snap to report that its user growth rate continued to slide.
Facebook’s shadow continues to hang over Snapchat, which is still best known for disappearing messages even though it has evolved to become much more.
Growth in Snapchat’s user base slowed down last year after Facebook’s Instagram copied Snapchat’s “stories” feature, which lets users post short video clips that disappear after 24 hours. Not to miss out on the trend, Facebook also launched disappearing stories this year.
And let’s not forget about WhatsApp, the Facebookowned messaging service that came out with “status,” which lets people post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. See a trend here?
All about the messaging
Matt Britton, CEO of social media marketing company Crowdtap and an expert on millennials, believes Snapchat has “gotten ahead of itself” in pushing out new features, when what it does best — and what it’s most used for — is one-on-one messaging.
“If you ask any teen how they use Snapchat, (most) say they use it to text people,” Britton said. “I think texting, one-on-one, they have their audience hooked. That’s going to continue.”
He said he’s seen a lot of teens replace the telephone icon at the bottom of their phones’ most-used apps with the Snapchat app. Why call when you can snap, after all?
Not a social network
Snapchat’s Stanford-dropout CEO, Evan Spiegel, has long insisted that his company is not a social network but a “camera company.” Unlike Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, Snapchat isn’t connecting networks of people. You could use it with just one other person, if you wanted. This sets it apart from its rivals, but could also make it more difficult for businesses to target ads to its users based on their personal connections.
Britton sees challenges for Snapchat’s non-messaging features, such as stories and a “discover” option that lets users keep up with news, sports or celebrities. These features aren’t what many users go to Snapchat for.
Snapchat, like Facebook, is also experimenting with augmented reality, a blending of the virtual and physical worlds, but it’s still hard to tell how that will make money or have broad appeal.