College students are constantly posting their adventures, study sessions or nightly outings to their Snapchat stories, showing off their friends and lively social activities to all in their contact lists. The obsession spans from teenagers to young professionals, who use it to, among other things, take selfies of themselves with dog filters.
Snapchat entered the social media world as a way to send friends pictures and videos that show on the screen for five to 10 seconds. From there, the addition of filters, geofilters and stories have made the social media app into a global phenomenon. Snapchat is now the third most popular social network for the millennial generation, ranking after Facebook and Instagram. Recent features of the app include access to global and local stories and featured articles from popular news outlets, and don’t forget the company’s recent ambition of being a “camera company.”
Snapchat’s latest move has the social network following the footsteps of predecessors Facebook and Twitter. The company behind the social media app, Snap Inc., has officially became a publicly traded company as of Thursday morning, according to an article from The New York Times. At the end of the day, Snap is worth almost $34 billion.
Considering the ever-changing and evolving stream of social media platforms gaining and losing popularity, many are wondering if investors made a smart decision to put money toward a risky product. People are really drawn into the concept of Snapchat. The amount of users the app has gained since 2011 is astounding, especially considering the demographic has consistently stayed at a young age. Investors are willing to risk their money because this is a fresh interface created by a young person who knows his market well. Last year alone, Snapchat made $400 million in revenue. They released Spectacles through clever pop-up shops and have continued to excel in strategic marketing and use of advertising. The question, however, still remains — how truly profitable will Snapchat become?
Snapchat is unique in the fact that posted content can’t receive likes or comments. Users can post stories, but only have the ability to see if people have viewed it rather than what they think about it. There’s no pressure to post aesthetically pleasing pictures, yet for many, Snapchat has become part of their daily routine. The company that supposedly started as a platform for nude pictures has now become a major social media company. The platform is creative, innovative and has been adapting to keep its relevance. The functions of Snapchat have expanded to more than just sharing pictures with friends — now users are able to view the news and public stories. What has separated Snapchat from other social media networks is the constant turnaround of ideas. Investors can get behind a company constantly evolving to the needs of their consumers. But are the best days of Snapchat behind it? Eventually, its fire will burn out.
Facebook exists on a separate plane than Snapchat. Snapchat isn’t a continuous platform since its main users only exist within the millennial age group. Facebook and Twitter are used by adults, senior citizens, businesses and politicians. Can we really see ourselves posting to Snapchat in our mid-forties? At some point, the social media network will die out. It’s not a trend, nor could it be considered a permanently popular site, but falls somewhere in the middle. It’s a low pressure form of social media.
We also must consider that social media hasn’t existed long enough for anyone to predict the scope of how successful this stock will become. Facebook was once considered to be the young people’s site, but it is now used by more than half of the U.S. adult population. Snapchat is a great company with an incredibly unique concept, but we have yet to see how profitable the company can be. Only time will tell if investors jumped on an opportunity, or just jumped the gun.
