A little more than ten years ago, Snapchat was reportedly only an idea that inventor Evan Spiegel and his classmates had during a Stanford class. Now, after more than 347 million active members and 10 billion daily video views, the White House has joined and senior ad buyers are intending to advertise on the major social media platform rather than on other social networking platforms. How did Snapchat, the social media platform that first gained notoriety as the ‘s*xting app‘, arrive at this point? Here is how Snapchat became a $17.13 billion social media platform.

4 Changing The Game With Disappearing Photos

A post shared by All Business Things (@allbusinessthings)

Early on, many did not recognize that Snapchat is far more similar to face-to-face communication than other social networks. When people converse while passing in the halls, or simply living their lives, such moments are lost. Snapchat mimics this habit and psychological state. Snapchat was founded at a period when everyone and their mother believed they could develop a successful social application.

Facebook was for family and friend updates, Instagram was for gorgeous photo content, and Twitter was for cocktail party banter. These three social media giants dominated the majority of the discussion, yet they all interacted in terms of functionality and, most importantly, audience. Snapchat, however, was able to counteract the capabilities of all three competitors and establish a new social pipeline.

The standard in the internet age is to develop platforms where everything is saved; everything is digitally archived and chronicled. Snapchat went in the opposite direction and is grounded in reality: moments are fleeting, and it is the exact sentiment and behavior that Snapchat mapped to. Snaps could be compared to the first fifty years of television: the transmission aired, and that was all. Snapchat tapped into a number of historical facts as opposed to developing something altogether new.

RELATED: The Swarovski Story: How It Became One Of The Biggest Names In Luxury

3 Getting Attention From Other Social Media Giants

All of these factors soon brought Snapchat to the notice of Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. Just one year after the app’s release, Zuckerberg reportedly attempted to purchase it for $3 billion. Zuckerberg is indeed the greatest consumer attention broker in history. He understands the importance of focus. Similar to what he accomplished with Instagram (which Facebook acquired for $1 billion in 2012), he realized that Snapchat was on the verge of capturing a generation’s attention.

He perceived it as a weakness and anticipated the emergence of a Snapchat generation, similar to the Facebook generation that preceded it. Facebook got a monopoly on the 18-to-24-year-old demographic with Instagram, and they already held a monopoly on the elder demographic with Facebook; all they needed was Snapchat to fill in the gaps. However, Spiegel declined the offer. He recognized what Mark Zuckerberg saw: the opportunity to fill social pipelines underserved by other platforms. He knew he had one of the most popular apps of the moment; all that remained was for him and his team to expand their user base and fulfill their essential purpose.

2 The Maturation And Growth Of Snapchat Users

But, let’s be honest: what causes a new social network to gain popularity rapidly? Teenagers. There are two extremely valid statements regarding teenagers. It is not cool to frequent the same club as your mother. Furthermore, you wish to lock your chamber. Snapchat resolved both issues. Parents were beginning to join Facebook in large numbers, therefore kids were looking to quit and find a new social network. And, the disappearing images feature was virtually equivalent to a “do not disturb” sign on your door, although considerably more effective.

Both of these factors contributed to Snapchat’s rapid and intense user growth. One year after its introduction, Snapchat reached 10 million active users. In October 2013, Snapchat introduced Stories, a big improvement to the platform. Users could now contribute Snaps to a new feature called “Story,” which functioned as a lengthier narrative composed of Snaps stitched together. The stories are accessible to all followers for twenty-four hours after they have been posted. By developing its own social language and context, this upgrade signified Snapchat’s first important step toward becoming a major platform.

It offered features unlike any other social media platform at the time; you could draw on top of photographs, information disappeared, and swiping up, down, and to the side was a relatively new gesture. But after Stories, the platform took off and developed into a mature content destination. 40% of 18-year-olds in the United States were everyday Snapchat users as of August 2014. There are now many celebrity Snapchat accounts that millions of users follow. Discover is the most significant update in recent Snapchat history, as it fundamentally altered the game for users and propelled the app into the mainstream.

RELATED: The Secret Of Zara’s Success: How It Went From Just 30 Euros To Opening Over 7,000 Stores Worldwide

1 Becoming A Media Destination Along The Way

Early in 2015, Snapchat introduced Discover. It’s a tool that enables consumers to access content from leading media businesses. Participants in the launch included National Geographic, Vice, and ESPN, among others. Eleven participants began the event. It was and is a significant play to be a part of Snapchat Discover since it places a firm in a very aggressive position inside the app’s overall user interface and provides unrivaled attention from its young users. It also entirely altered the swipe navigation and operation of the app.

It was an extremely exciting development for the social media giant. It was evident that they were aware of current trends and prepared to act: the proliferation of content and firms becoming media companies, the release of their own material, and the significance of mobile being first. Using Discover as their platform, Snapchat went out and negotiated arrangements that allowed them to curate some of the world’s leading content providers in one location. This provides them greater micromanagement control over what appears on the Discover page.

The businesses that began as partners, as well as the 18 brands that are currently in the space, have a substantial connection with Snapchat and are receiving substantial equity in return. Why? 49% of Snapchat users are under the age of 25. There are more than 347 million users, getting up to 400 million. Snapchat essentially gives these brands access to the 25-and-under demographic. Therefore, it is not surprising that big media companies have assembled full teams for the endeavor. Their only responsibility is to create Snapchat content.

READ NEXT: The 8 Fastest Growing Brands In The World, As Of 2022Sources: GARY VAYNERCHUK, INK, NASDAQ

Source: Read Full Article