In spite of recent news that Snapchat lost approximately 25 perecent of its valuation, the app seems to be growing quickly among its user base, with news yesterday that the company tripled its video views in just a few months. In May, the company reported 2 billion daily views. It now reports 6 billion daily views.
It's been a big year for the app, who has grown from an ephemeral, somewhat vigilante messaging service for teens to a content destination that is now trying to increase its appeal with advertisers. Snapchat is largely considered the fastest growing social network, hitting 200 million users in four years (at four years, Facebook had 140 million active users, and Twitter had 30 million). (Generating revenue, of course, was yet another question).
According to the Financial Times, the announcement follows Facebook's announcement that it doubled its video views in roughly the same period, from 4 billion to 8 billion. And Snapchat's traffic comes from smartphones only, whereas Facebook counts both desktop and mobile views. Some stipulations apply. From the Financial Times:
Comparing the three services' video consumption on a like-for-like basis is difficult. YouTube prefers to track usage in hours, while Facebook counts a video as viewed if it has played for just three seconds. Snapchat reportedly charges advertisers for videos that play for fractions of a second, as many of its ephemeral clips are much shorter than on other platforms. Last month it launched a new ad format, "sponsored lenses", allowing marketers to add digital "stickers" to users' video messages to promote their products.
Video is increasingly the medium that marketers are eyeing next year and beyond, the so-called "Future of Marketing." Experts forecast that in 2017, it'll take up 69 percent of consumer internet traffic, with 52 percent of marketers agreeing currently about its importance and effectiveness in online sales and more.
With Snapchat's precipitous growth, the company has hinted at an attempt at IPO, but now that the company's valuation is in question, we will have to wait to see what its next moves will be.