Every millennial has it, and almost every parent hates it. Snapchat is a service for smartphones that allows for users to send primarily “snaps” in form of videos, or pictures, but also texts, video calling, and audio calling. The app, which was started back in 2011, has gained excessive fame as almost anyone with a smartphone has it. Over 187 million people worldwide use the app daily, which creates a large net worth for the app in general. Snapchats net worth is 3.8 billion dollars, created by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie brown. Recently, the creators founded Snap, Inc., composed of Snapchat, Bitmoji, Spectacles, and Zenly. Reason for the incorporation is for outside investments in the form of stocks.
Snapchat has definitely had its ups and downs, costing the application to suffer some minor and major losses in users. An update was meant to make the app more friendly for new users received excessive backlash from current users. Although, the update did not lower the stock too drastically. The most recent tragedy for Snapchat is that Kylie Jenner no longer uses the app. This might not seem like a big deal, but after her tweet Snapchat’s stock lost $1.3 billion. Kylie wields extraordinary influence on the platform. Her celebrity status adds fuel to the backlash surrounding the app's major redesign. To make matters worse, other companies are jumping on the bandwagon of stories and picture messaging.
Instagram, owned by Facebook, has Snapchat users flocking by the hundreds to use their version of stories and personal messaging. People can upload photos, take photos, apply exclusive filters, add stickers, and more for others to view over a 24 hour period. The competition from other apps is a threat to take seriously. Even though other are staying true to Snapchat’s originality, Instagram updates including gifs and filters attract more and more.
Snapchat will continue to grow in their amount of downloads and users. But other factors come into play with the success of the app. These factors affect everyone who uses it, and that can inhibit, or push the growth of the app.
Works Cited
Yurieff, Kaya. “Snapchat Loss in Stock.” CNN Money, 23 Feb. 2018, money.cnn.com/2018/02/22/technology/snapchat-update-kylie-jenner/index.html.
Coalo , JJ. “Snapchat.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Jan. 2014, www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?
Visual Link:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/snapchat-user-count/
It’s pretty incredible how one person such as Kylie Jenner can so drastically change the worth of the app. As well, the backlash that it received after the most recent update proves that it is a consumer based product, and the success of the company is usually determined based off of consumer satisfaction. The opportunity cost for taking such a big risk and updating the entire interface was very high; the money used to make that development could have gone towards other things and there was a big risk in losing investors who weren’t satisfied.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you showed how big of an impact the consumers have on the market here in America. Just one person was able to make or break a company and I feel like that’s a major impact on our economy. Developers are constantly striving to keep up with social change we are going through over the past 10 years. Which is why when one company sees something that works well for another company, they are going to jump on the bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that in the short time the snapchat update has been out, it hasn’t suffered that major of a lose. I think that it goes to show, that although many users were upset in the first few weeks, they eventually get over it because of the app is “addicting” and popular. It will be interesting to see if snapchat will give in and revert the update, or stay where they are at. As if the update doesn’t create more loses, then it may not be worth it to take the time and money to switch back.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty interesting how one person such as Kylie Jenner can have such a huge impact on a stock for an app. The update was definitely unpopular and not a favorite by users, every time a company puts out an update they risk losing users and money because most people don't like change. I personally use snap everyday still after the update but its definitely not new for users to backlash over an update.
ReplyDeleteIt is seemingly crazy to me how fast Snap Inc. has grown over the past five years. I cannot think of a millennial without the social media app, and now, younger and younger children are sending snaps to their friends. In terms of economics, the main concept that regards Snapchat is the competition. Recently, Instagram made an update which would allow “stories” to be posted for a 24 hour viewing window. This idea, which is obviously created by Snapchat, makes other big competitors, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram fight to be supreme.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very surprising that just by Kylie Jenner not using Snapchat anymore, their stock dropped $1.3 billion. However, it makes sense because she is a very widely known celebrity that a lot of people unfortunately look up to as a role model. In addition, Snapchat has basically grown its number of users every year that it has been used which also likely means that the revenue that the app creates is also growing every year. This is positive for the economy of the world as more and more people are contributing to the app and spending more money to try and improve it as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting that Kylie Jenner had such an influence over Snapchats stock. If she can cause them to lose 1.3 billion, celebrities have a huge influence over stock prices for companies. I agree though that other platforms are threatening to Snapchat, where they can mimic Snapchat’s one niche. That can ultimately force people to question why they are even using it in the first place, and drive down stock price and the overall value of the company.
ReplyDeleteEverytime Snapchat gets an update, the people that are current users of Snapchat seem to always want the old Snapchat back. Although users may not at first like the new update and all of the new features that it has to offer, eventually the users are okay with the new update because they’re now used to it. The only thing that the users are generally upset with for the updates is the change, no one likes change when what they had going was perfect. The fact that Snapchat has lost so much money over one person announcing that they’re not using the app anymore is so shocking to me. One person should not be able to have that much power over the rest of the people.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how fast snapchat has grown over the past seven years. I am surprised how the new “user friendly” snapchat update didn’t cause more of a backlash. In addition, it is crazy how just one person, Kylie Jenner, has such a strong influence on the market of Snapchat that she made them lose $1.3 billion. I feel if Instagram keeps pushing out new updates, allowing for more customization, Snapchat may be in trouble. Snapchat took a big risk with this new update, but I feel the trade-offs have hurt the company overall.
ReplyDeleteSnapchat is a huge part of the new generations communication. Teenagers from around the world can use it for free and it lets them connect with celebrities, friends, and new networks. I do not believe that Snapchat will die because of the new update but it goes into how much should a company change at what time and is it ever okay to go back? Snapchat probably put hundreds of dollars into the new update and they lost a lot of money because of it. With the amount of people unhappy should snapchat as a company go back and make the changes minimally instead of one huge change?
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ReplyDeleteI am surprised to see that Snapchat’s stocks did not lower drastically. Like you said, nearly every teenager owns Snapchat; in fact, teenagers make up the vast majority of Snapchat users. I have not heard anyone say they like the update, so I’m surprised to see that despite all the complaints, people aren’t deleting the app. Deleting it would surely not be permanent (teenagers are addicted to Snapchat these days), but rather an act of “rebellion.” It’ll be interesting to see if Snapchat decides to undo their update after all the backlash.
ReplyDeleteWhat is curious to me about this update is why Snapchat hasn't brought its old version back. I would think that losing $1.3 Billion in stock would have them rethink the update and bring something else out. Another thing that is interesting to me is the fact that the number of users didn't drop after the update. This shows how important Snapchat has become in our society because even though almost everyone doesn't like the update, they tolerate it because keeping in touch with friends is more important than deleting the app.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the latest update is making current users not want to use the app anymore. The format stresses users out, causing them to turn their love and obsession into hate. Instagram’s latest update seems like a clever business opportunity. They’re taking advantage of Snapchat’s backlash, and the results are impressive. I didn’t realize how many people were using Instagram as a main platform instead of Snapchat. I believe Instagram will only continue to get increased popularity is Snapchat doesn’t go back to the previous layout.
ReplyDeleteThe topic you chose was very good because all of the readers have been personally affected by the changes made to snapchat and can have a deeper understanding of the topic. Also I did not realize how large the rivalry between the three main social media companies was, it is interesting to see the statistics behind the fight.
ReplyDeleteAn avid Snapchat user myself, I can say that the app has both ups and downs. Snapchat is convenient because it allows you to store pictures, called memories, somewhere that doesn’t take up storage on a phone; because of this, I am able to keep a lot more on my phone. One of the downsides to the app is that it is always being updated and changes are made that make it less accessible and more confusing to use. I found it surprising that just the loss of Kylie Jenner on Snapchat caused such a huge loss for the company; it’s crazy how much a celebrity can impact the choices people make.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that one app, which is basically a texting service can have so many users, and what surprises me even more is that it is still trending upwards, and is worth 3.8 billion dollars. Now what I was wondering is how is Snapchat worth 3.8 billion, as it is a free app which I don’t believe has any ads, so where is the revenue coming from that makes it an appealing stock to investors?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting topic. I wonder if as millenials and our generation ages if snapchat will lose its popularity. Since it became so prevalent so fast, it might be a one-hit wonder. Making a huge revenue quickly is good, but then again the app might only be a fad until its main users get older and fall away from social media.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that snapchat has been able to sustain itself from one "gimmick" for this many years. But given this new controversy, will snapchat be able to innovate enough to not lose any more of their stock?
ReplyDeleteI think that it will be interesting to see whether or not the demand for snapchat goes down because of the incredibly unpopular update, or whether or not this will even affect consumption of the service at all. I think this topic is incredibly relevant for young people and it will be interesting to see how the newly founded industry expands its market to include new goods and services.
ReplyDeleteSnapchat has received so much backlash because of this new update. People have considered protesting and forcing Snapchat to change back to the old format, and its weird that Snapchat hasn't lost very much profit because of it. You would think that people's tastes would cause a decrease in demand in the app.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Snapchat has indeed has its ups and downs in the updates that they make. Many users have become unhappy with the recent update which has caused the economic growth in the company to go down greatly. Snapchat has also lost quite a bit of stock due to the recent Kylie Jenner post about the update. Due to her tweet Snapchat lost $1.3 billion and impacted the overall company growth very much. The app has taken many economic loses lately and is continuing to struggle to regain users and parts of their stock.
ReplyDeleteThis post was really interesting, it's crazy to believe that one celebrity's tweet can drop a company's stock by 1.3 million. I think this is probably because everyone knew the update was bad but hearing it from a celebrity who is usually a big supporter/user of the app confirmed it for many people. Which eventually does make people use other similar apps like Instagram, it would have been interesting if you included the influx of Instagram stories vs Snapchat stories after the bad update.
ReplyDeleteSnapchat has progressively become more popular in recent years because of the following of fans with celebrities, when famous people stop using the app it does create a huge impact on the app itself. Though not all people are using the app in order to keep up with their favorite celebrities. The redesign of the app that the creators say is supposed to make it "more user friendly", ruined the app for people who have been using it for years. Personally I believe that though they were not trying to cause any harm to their users, it had a huge impact as everything seems more crammed together and somewhat harder to use rather than easier. If snapchat does choose to go back to the original format I believe that it would be a great help for their business and more people would choose to re-download the app they have recently deleted in order to "take a stand" against the new format.
ReplyDeleteI like this topic because I use this app more than any other one on my phone and am on it pretty much constantly, and I know the exact update you're talking about and it sucked when I first got it. On twitter people started protesting and saying that everyone should delete snapchat until they fix the new update and put it back to normal, but I got used to the update pretty quick and don't really mind it too much anymore. I didn't even know that Kylie stopped using it though and honestly I couldn't care less if she uses snapchat or not, I just use it for my own personal use
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the current amount of people using the app and the net worth I was shocked to because I figured the stats would be much higher for how big the app blew up in the past couple of years, i'm glad to hear that the amount of people still using the app has not went down because of the update, snapchat could of went around how they would release the update better, there was not much notice that this would happen because the update just happened, there was a tweet here and there but nothing big, and an app like that they could of had people (Teens) try out the new update and they could of made changes, because to them they don't care about us, they just want money. That's a problem with company's like this they want and see there app grow so they stop caring about the consumers and they focus on how they are going to make more money next
ReplyDeleteSnapchat as indeed had a lot of ups and downs, but considering those negative updates, is the backlash really worth it? I have a Snapchat account, but I don’t go on my phone much to use the account that often. The new update is a surprise for everyone, and it indeed has a negative impact on the frequent users. Since I don’t go on it much, it hasn’t really affected me as much as other people. Snapchat has a lot of users, so perhaps it is worth it to hate the update, but for some people who barely use it are fine with it. Either way, I think a new update will come out that will bring it back to the usual app. This will probably decrease the negativity, even if the creators were trying to make it more user friendly for the new people coming into the app. The creators could have made the people with the app already happy, but instead, they tried to make new users happy. This did in fact impact their company because of this change due to their many users already.
ReplyDeleteI never realized how valuable Snapchat’s net worth actually is, but I find it kind of sad that Kylie Jenner caused a $1.3 billion decrease in the their stock. This means that the only reason why some people go on snapchat is to view stories of celebrities and don’t using it as originally intended.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting how influential one app is on a large population. Is there a reason Kylie Jenner stopped using it? There could be a problem with the app if people as influential as her stop using it which then causes the $1.3 billion decrease that was seen. Social media is taking over the lives of many people and there are many influential people like Kylie Jenner who can make a huge dent in some of these social media platforms. The original intent was to people to communicate with others through pictures, now it seems celebrities have changed the value of the app. Again, very interesting how one app affects a large number of people.
ReplyDeleteIt's truly crazy to see just how influential one celebrity can be on some of their followers. The new Snapchat update I can personally tell you I hate, but that hasn't stopped me from using in. Snapchat's creations such as streaks and best friends list keeps people on the app just to keep up to date with those elements. They have also started adding news and adding their own segments just for the app and have done work to present their information tailored to millennials as well. Even though Snapchat has taken a big hit, I believe that all of the work they've done improving the app will keep consumers using their accounts.
ReplyDeleteI find it pretty interesting how Kylie Jenner paired with the new update was able to negatively affect Snapchat's stock so drastically. People are extremely outraged over the update, and as annoying as it was, Snapchat was running out of options. Their competitors are adding more and more features to their own apps, and people were already walking out on Snapchat prior to the update. So, even though they may have known it would receive a backlash, they had seen that as a small marginal cost, to the benefit they hoped to gain in having an app that was more unique in comparison to their competitors.
ReplyDeleteSnapchat has become one of the top used apps by teens in this generation. It is interesting to see what happens when a change is made to an app with such a massive group of users. When it comes to the new app update I personally heard only annoyed negative complaints about it, yet everyone who complained to me continued use of the app. Someone famous like Kylie Jenner stopping their use of the app was the extra push some people needed to officially say goodbye to Snapchat. It goes to show how much of an impact famous individuals can have due to their large group of followers.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the statistic of user growth in Snapchat, it's surprising to hear how much the new update back fired. Additionally, this caused many people to lose interest in the app including Kylie Jenner, costing the company billions of dollars in loss. With the loss in profit, Snapchat might start to see a decrease in demand for their app thus impacting their profit and service.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure what the entire idea or message of this blog post is supposed to be about. I see that you displayed a user growth graph for various quarters in a timeline and that you mentioned that company has a net worth of $3.8 billion but other than that I'm not quite sure if this differentiates enough from just an update news article you might see on a snapchat story. You might have wanted to add more of a tie into possibly how the user growth is relating to the growth in net worth of the company.
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ReplyDeleteThis details the journey for Snapchat the app. How the graph shows the overall growth 2014 until 2017. The effect that celebrities have on the app is also very interesting. Like how someone like Kylie Jenner can cause Snapchat’s stock to lose 1.3 billion dollars. The competition between Snapchat and Instagram is also very interesting as Instagram has steadily been adding features comparable to Snapchat. This seems like it’ll cause a big problem for Snapchat in the near future
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