Snapchat’s growth records all time high after 4 years of drought

Snapchat, the social media application that everyone used back in the day just rose back from its pitfall. 

From its inception in 2011, the messaging application was the first to introduce the concept of pictures and messages being only available for a short period of time before becoming inaccessible to recipients.  

Ten years later, and the wondrous little app is witnessing its highest user growth according to its Q2 2021 earnings report. From around the world, 293 million new users have joined the camera-based messaging app, which recorded a 23 percent from July of last year until now. 

Parent company Snap hasn’t seen similar numbers in years, as the company’s prior benchmark was 22 percent of user growth in 2017, which was four years ago. Snapchat’s growth has even topped the microblogging site Twitter, which recently announced 206 million new users. 

The increasing number of user growth is accompanied with skyrocketing cash flow. Revenues have increased by 116 percent to $982 million, successfully competing with other popular social media applications such as Facebook. 

The company was struggling after reaching a $5 in stock price; however, things are looking much more pleasing now as this impressive turnaround has been attributed to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, which forced individuals to stay at home with nothing but their electronics and the internet.  

However, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has stated previously the app’s user base is anticipated to become even larger as the pandemic comes to an end. According to Spiegel, the camera-based messaging app is designed to be used out and about with friends, so the “inevitable death” of Snapchat may not be in the picture after all. 

“As things began to open up in the United States in late February, we saw inflection points in key behaviors like Story posting and engagement with the Snap Map,” Spiegel said. 

According to Snapchat, its user growth is based in North America and Europe, where advertisers roll out money on advertisements daily to reach maximum number of social media users.  

However, there’s always a trick to the equation. 

With Apple’s new iOS 14, developers are forced to ask users for permission to track their data. In case a user rejects the tracking request, social media application who utilize ad-targeting will have a difficult time tailoring ads to peoples’ interests.  

However, nothing will stand in the way of Snapchat topping charts, as Snap’s chief business officer Jeremi Gorman, said “we observed higher opt-in rates than we are seeing reported generally across the industry, which we believe is due in part to the trust our community has in our products and our business.”  

“We are pleased by the progress our team is making with the development of our augmented reality platform, and we are energized by the many opportunities to grow our community and business around the world,” he added. 

So, even if the younger generation that obsessed over Snapchat has gotten older, the newer generation of youngsters are taking full advantage of the fun photo-sharing capabilities available on the app. The concept of posting your daily life online for only 24 hours is not going anywhere, as Snapchat’s growth will continue to see soaring numbers.