One lesson that Snapchat has learned from observing all its predecessors in action is that a strong business model, a diverse product stack and the need to expanding horizons is vital for sustained growth. While in that, advertising revenue matters, and it is an area of focus for the platform, but there is also a need to see the bigger picture on where the consumer is headed.
Speaking on the first day of the Advertising Week New York, Imran Khan, Chief Strategy Officer, Snapchat reiterated that under the newly created corporate identity Snap Inc, the company had already made the move to occupy a much broader positioning.
Khan informed that as a company, Snapchat was moving to a place, where it wanted to be the "camera company". In line with this, Snapchat has recently announced the launch of Spectacles - the debut product outside the Snapchat brand name in the realm of wearable technology.
Industry observers are predicting that Spectacles may learn from the Google Glass experience and succeed where it failed in clicking with consumers.
Snapchat's big pitch also included user trends and case studies that demonstrated the platform's efficacy for advertisers.
At present Snapchat boasts of over 150 million users but the majority of these come from the United States, Canada and Europe, underscoring the potential the platform had in markets in Asia. "But there are some interesting patterns from our current user base," Khan said, adding, "More than two-thirds of this audience creates daily content on the app and the average time spent by an individual user is up to 25-30 minutes."
Another prominent product for Snapchat is the Snapchat stories that have over time combined content from Snapchat's team and users globally to include both still and video formats to showcase a big event from many different viewpoints.
In the days to come, Snapchat is adding more to its offer to be able to connect with people at various touchpoints but always keeping the image and video experience at the core.
