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Snapchat faces further brand backlash as 3 million users abandon platform

By Don-Alvin Adegeest

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Fashion

The number one rule of digital marketing for brands is to engage with audiences in the social channels where they are active. It would appear that Snapchat is in more than a little trouble, with the photo and video sharing platform losing 3 million active daily users in the past quarter and brands following suit.

The company has been under scrutiny since H2 2016 and earlier this year saw beauty giant Mabelline Tweet “Our Snapchat views have dropped dramatically and we want to stay connected to you all. We're not sure if this is the platform to do it anymore, unfortunately. Should Maybelline stay on Snapchat?” At the same time the company saw its value nosedive 1.3 billion dollars after Kylie Jenner tweeted she was over the app.

Brands are questioning the return on investment

"If brands and businesses decide that Snapchat is no longer giving them adequate returns on the money and time they’ve been investing in the platform, just imagine how much that will cost Snap,” the New York Times said at the time.

Snapchat defines a Daily Active User, DAU, as a registered Snapchat user who opens the Snapchat application at least once during a defined 24-hour period. The company's DAUs declined 2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2018. During the second quarter, Snapchat launched an update to the redesign, which many users are stating is the reason for leaving the platform. In its quarterly statement the company said: "The short- and long-term impacts of changes and optimizations on DAUs and other user metrics are difficult to predict.”

According to Hubspot, Snapchat’s problem started two years ago, when Instagram introduced its Stories function. While "Snapchat started the disappearing messaging wave, it doesn’t mean brands are staying exclusive. In fact, a lot of brands have already talked and written about decisions to prioritize Instagram Stories over Snapchat for ephemeral messaging and advertising.”

Instagram is still the go-to platform for brands with over 700 million followers and over 200 million followers on Instagram Stories. Both in terms of reach and demographic Instagram is more user-friendly and as part of the Facebook group its sheer scale is unmatched.

Snapchat usage and engagement have gone down 15 to 40 percent since the release of Instagram stories in August 2016. Top creators at its height received 330,000 views per day on Snapchat in 2015 up until June 2016. Back in the first quarter this was between 205,000 to 250,000 views per day (source: TechCrunch).

Whatever its future, Snapchat is hoping its redesign will bring users back to the platform and its adverts showcasing its latest features and updates are aiming to do just that. As The News Minute stated in May: “Snapchat was successful because of its simplicity, something that it has taken for granted over the years. But the charm of Snapchat may be fading away.”

Photo: pexels.com

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