Snapchat’s success story: driven by innovation
Snapchat kicked off its success as a social network with self-destructing chats. It now has 332 million daily users thanks to its innovative features. We took a closer look at its success story.
The basics: how did Snapchat start out?
The Snapchat app was built on two main pillars: stories and chats. The stories allow users to post content for 24 hours, which then automatically disappears. The same principle is now also used in Instagram stories. After Facebook failed to acquire Snapchat in 2016, the social media giant copied the story features and integrated them into its Instagram app. At the time, many anticipated the downfall of Snapchat, but the company behind it – Snap – had other plans and remained independent.
Since day one, Snap’s chat feature has especially appealed to young users belonging to Gen Z. And they have stayed loyal to the app, allowing Snapchat to further boost its numbers and overtake Twitter, for example. One factor contributing to its success is the use of augmented reality (AR), which probably no other social network does better than Snapchat.
AR – the technologies behind Snapchat’s success
Time and time again, Snap’s passion for innovation has disrupted the messaging and social media market. One of Snapchat’s innovations is the use of AR, for example in the widely shared videos and images that are enhanced with camera filters. In its very own Lens Studio, which was released in 2017, Snapchat develops unique AR experiences and shares the corresponding tools with its community.
Snapchat’s AR selfie filters are known mainly for their dog ears and animated beards. The company has constantly built on this technology over recent years and now even calls itself a “camera company”.
We asked Götz Trillhaas: Everyone is talking about the Metaverse, but Snapchat is going all in on AR. What can users look forward to in the future? And what are the strengths of AR?
Götz Trillhaas: We genuinely believe that people love the real world and since more than 10 years we’ve been investing heavily in technologies that let them add digital layers to their surroundings to make it more fun, engaging or educational. One of the major strengths of AR is that it’s already used by many people everyday and more than 88% of German Gen Z are interested in using AR for shopping.
Among other options, users can now also change their surroundings thanks to AR, making the platform a hub of creativity and interaction. More than 332 million users are active on Snapchat on a daily basis, where they freely express themselves and interact with social contacts. These users immerse themselves in 6 billion AR experiences each day, underlining the importance of the technology.
That obviously presents enormous potential for marketers and raises the question of how they can reach users on the platform through their messages.
Snapchat as a marketing platform and software producer
Marketers can reach their target group on Snapchat in a number of ways. They can go down the traditional route by using a business account to produce content and generate impressions and interactions among followers and in feeds. Snap has recognized the importance of content for its core user group, and users can increasingly watch traditional TV shows via their Snapchat Discover page. Snapchat users want to be fed content where they’re already active.
In addition, Snap enables brands to develop their own AR filters. Companies that offer creative added value in this way can quickly become a trending topic. Snap has also developed other technologies to attract companies to the platform. The main one is the Dress Up feature designed to improve the online shopping experience using AR. This technology lets users see how items, such as shoes, would look on them. Not only is that intended to help retailers increase their conversions, but expensive and environmentally unfriendly returns can also be reduced.
We asked Götz Trillhaas: How will Snapchat help marketers reach their target groups with precision? So far, users are very young. How does Snapchat also want to reach older generations?
Götz Trillhaas: There’s a mismatch between reality and perception when it comes to the age of German Snapchatters. We do reach around 90% of the 13-24 year-old Germans, but the community is growing with us and 80% of our users are more than 18 years old. Marketers also should not underestimate Gen Z as they’re already heavily influencing the shopping journey and ways people will want to engage with brands in the future. We’re partners for marketers that want to reach this important audience on our platform.
Leveraging Snapchat marketing
Snapchat continues to be a promising platform, and not just for its AR camera software. Snap has consistently demonstrated its ability to roll out technological innovations on a large scale, enabling it to become a leader in the augmented reality domain and an exciting new market for marketers to daringly and creatively tap into.
If you want to find out more about how you can use Snapchat for your e-commerce, we’ve put together a guide for you.
Or simply watch Snap’s intriguing sessions from DMEXCO 2021, which you can access at any time by signing up to the DMEXCO community for free. In one session, we chatted with Götz Trillhaas, Managing Director DACH at Snap Inc., about AR: the future is augmented.
