Dive Brief:
- eMarketer reports that Snapchat is expected to expand its user base by 27.2% this year.
- By eMarketer’s reckoning, Snapchat will reach 58.6 million users in 2016, compared to 56.8 million for Twitter and 54.6 million for Pinterest.
- eMarketer predicts Snapchat will add 26.9 million more users by 2020, double what Twitter and Pinterest are expected to add.
Dive Insight:
eMarketer’s numbers for monthly average users are far below the more commonly reported 150 million for Snapchat right now and roughly 140 million for Twitter. Although social media platforms announce average monthly or daily users, eMarketer uses its own formula to determine those metrics where it only counts someone who logs into an account at least once a month consistently over a calendar year. It also counts users with multiple accounts as a single user and eliminates active accounts that are clearly bots.
“What makes Snapchat different from other mobile messaging apps—and more-established social networks—is the short-lived nature of the messages, the highly visual interface and the features that enable users to get creative with the images they share, and tailor them to specific locations or events,” said eMarketer principal analyst Cathy Boyle in an eMarketer article. “The fun aspect of Snapchat should also be credited for its success. In a world in which there is an app for nearly everything, Snapchat has cut through the clutter by injecting fun back into social sharing.”
Snapchat is attractive to marketers because of its youth-centric audience, largely in the 12 to 34 range, with the largest group in the 18 to 24 range. However, it has been notoriously difficult in terms of targeting and measurement for advertising on the app, but Snapchat has been actively working to improve both areas and add advertising options that appeal to a wide range of marketers. One of its signature ad units, a sponsored lens, is out of the reach of many brands with a reported price tag as high as $750,000 for a one-day campaign.