Introduction
Snapchat Plus premium subscription, launched in June, already has more than one million users. The premium version of the messenger has also added new features, such as unique emojis and backgrounds for avatars and TechCrunch reports. Snapchat’s premium version is very popular: according to Sensor Tower, in the first 30 days of Snapchat Plus’s launch, developers earned $7.3 million, $5 million of which came from paid subscriptions (Beebom, 2022). The analytics firm reported that the most popular plan was the $3.99 plan, followed by six-month and annual subscriptions at $21.99 and $39.99, respectively (Shastri, 2020). This amount of money is significant and helped to conquer the market of social media.
Discussion
Snapchat Plus premiered on June 29. For a monthly fee, users get the ability to pin chats with specific users, change the app’s icon and see which users have viewed a published story more than once. Snap has recently introduced several new features. For example, Snapchat Plus users now have access to exclusive backgrounds for their Bitmoji avatars and can choose their own emojis to caption their snaps. At the launch of the premium subscription, the company’s senior vice president Jacob Andreu indicated that ads would remain there (Beebom, 2022). The developers have no plans to turn it off for now. The Snapchat Plus plan was first launched in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The company has since expanded the premium subscription to countries such as India, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland, and Austria.
In addition, on November 8, Snapchat announced a new victory over itself – the number of video views tripled compared to May and reached 6 billion. In the future, however, the company plans to win not only against itself but also against its main competitor (Tropp & Baetzgen, 2019). The social network Facebook is still ahead of Snapchat in terms of this indicator. Since April, the social network has doubled the number of video views, which now reaches 8 billion per day (Shastri, 2020). According to this, one can say that the amount of views is vast. Below can be seen the pictures of the opportunities provided by Snapchat+.
On the one hand, one can assume that Snapchat will soon overtake Facebook because it is growing faster. After all, as recently as September, the number of video views on Snapchat did not exceed 4 billion. On the other hand, there are doubts about whether this competition is fair. For one thing, Facebook reports data that takes into account desktop and mobile audiences, while Snapchat simply does not have a desktop audience. The company only releases apps for mobile platforms. On the other hand, the term “view” is not clearly defined. On Facebook, a view is counted if a user watched a video for at least 3 seconds (Shastri, 2020). And in the case of Snapchat, a few milliseconds are enough. In this case, the competition becomes too formal.
In general, Facebook videos are much longer than Snapchat videos. The former usually reach a minute or even more, while the latter last a few seconds. In comparison, YouTube videos average a few hours in length. Nevertheless, this spring, the number of daily views there reached 4 billion. As recently as October, Snapchat’s annual revenue was estimated at $100 million. The company has recently introduced several innovations in its use (Tropp & Baetzgen, 2019). Last month it launched Sponsored Lenses, which allows advertisers to place their brands in the background of users’ selfies. In addition, the company offered advertisers to purchase sponsored channels on the Discover platform, which will feature only the brand’s promotional content. Online video advertising monetization is the most popular direction in the online advertising segment.
Opinions and Evaluations
Based on the above, one can conclude that Snapchat has invested a large amount of money in the development of its project so far. Despite the presence of larger competitors, the brand continues to grow and introduce product innovations. The introduction of premium features in the app has not only helped to draw attention to the project but also, judging by the data, to increase profits several times. This is mainly due to the high level of customization of various interface elements. This feature appeals to a large number of people who want to stand out from the crowd and remain unique. Snapchat offers this opportunity: by purchasing the premium access feature, users can enjoy a wide range of improvements for their personal pages. Also noticeable is the introduction of tools for creating convenient communication with other users, which has a positive impact on project development.
The next noteworthy point is the increase in video views on the Snapchat platform. However, it is impossible to determine the correct number of videos and their viewers, the fact that their number triples are an indication of a growing company with the right marketing strategy. As stated in the article, Facebook is currently leading the social media rankings, but if Snapchat continues to grow at the same rate, it could surpass its competitor several times over.
Implications and Learning Points
When it comes to lessons to be learned from the campaign, there has been a significant increase in viewers recently. It can be seen that the number of hits has tripled, an excellent result that enables the company to compete with the giants of the media arena. Therefore, it can be said that there is a high probability of increasing competition between the two brands, which means attracting additional funding for both projects, with a positive impact on the customer.
Conclusion
It is not so important who will take the lead among the companies in the social media arena because the customer can use all the necessary applications when they compete with each other, which means attracting better functionality. I like this idea because Facebook has become a monopoly in its industry. Today it is increasingly rare to see quality updates that bring the user new features and expand functionality. Development is only possible in a competitive environment, so this will benefit both Snapchat and Snapchat users.
References
Beebom, S. (2022). What Is Snapchat+ Subscription? Everything You Need to Know. Beebom. Web.
Shastri, A. (2020). Elaborated SWOT Analysis of Snapchat 2022 Study | IIDE. IIDE. Web.
Tropp, J., & Baetzgen, A. (2019). Users’ Definition of Snapchat Usage. Implications for Marketing on Snapchat. International Journal on Media Management, 21(2), 130–156. Web.