10 Snapchat Statistics You Need to Know in 2020
In the age of timelines and permanence, Snapchat offers a fresh and unique way of interacting with others. Where the norm was to have platforms where everything is saved and stored for later, Snapchat had something else in mind. Snapchat was quick to rise to fame, especially among the younger generation. Part of this success can be linked to Snapchat having something new to offer to its users. Snapchat has been a real pioneer in bringing augmented reality to its users through filters and interactive lenses. Notably, Snapchat had Stories before Instagram and Facebook. You could say Snapchat had Stories before it was cool. Snapchat is an image and video messaging app, which was developed by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown in 2011. The app allows you to share multimedia messages that will “self-destruct” in up to 10 seconds. When it comes to communication style, Snapchat mirrors how people interact with each other face-to-face. The interactions are temporary, and not stored anywhere, much like real life. This enables users to share photos and videos that last a short time before they disappear forever- leaving no history that can come back to embarrass them later. And it wasn’t long before Snapchat caught the attention of brands and marketers. With the potential to reach out to younger audiences, Snapchat is a great platform if your target market consists of millennials and Gen Z’ers. These Snapchat statistics will help you understand where Snapchat currently stands and how profitable it could be for your business. So, let’s dive into the top 10 Snapchat statistics that you need to know about in 2019
1. How Many People Use Snapchat?
As of June 2019, Snapchat has reached 210 million active daily users (Statista, 2019). That’s a lot of daily active users. For comparison, Snapchat had 190 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2019, and 188 million in the second quarter of 2018. That means that daily active users increased by 8 percent year-over-year. But how did Snapchat reach to where it is today? To start off, Snapchat brought something new to the table. It wasn’t like other social media platforms. There was something different in the interactions that Snapchat offered. And teenagers liked it. Snapchat created a new way for teens to share their photos freely. But it wasn’t just limited to the way that people could share their messages. It was also about the features that Snapchat offered. Snapchat gave users a creative platform, with fun face filters combined with the sense of privacy through the disappearing nature of the content. And even though the security isn’t foolproof, they did much more than competitors at that time. To help increase the sense of privacy, the sender is notified every time any recipient takes a screenshot of the content shared. It could be a combination of all these factors (among many more) that lead to Snapchat becoming popular among the teens of the world. But more on that later.
2. Snapchat Demographics: Age
This next Snapchat statistic highlights just how popular the app is among the younger generations. More than half, or 53 percent to be exact, of all U.S. internet users aged 15 to 25 years use the photo-sharing app (Statista, 2019). In fact, it’s currently the most popular social network among teens, ahead of Instagram, Twitter, and even social media giant Facebook. Snapchat’s main demographic has long consisted of millennials and Generation Z. Its creators understood what the younger generation wanted from social media platforms. With their target audience clearly specified from the beginning, they developed an understanding of the habits and preferences of this age group and created an app that gives them what they want. The app’s popularity decreases as we move through the age groups. Just one-third of U.S. internet users between 26 and 35 years old use Snapchat. That figure drops to less than one in five for the 36 to 45 age group and one in ten for the 46 to 55 age group; only four percent of U.S. internet users aged 56 and above use Snapchat.
3. Number of Snaps Created
According to the latest Snapchat statistics, over 210 million snaps are created every single day (Snapchat, 2020). As a result, the company increased its total snaps created per quarter to a whopping 3.5 billion in the second quarter of 2019. The company attributes this growth to the higher number of users that are using newer Android devices. Snapchat says this group of users is sending 7 percent more snaps than users who are still on the older versions of Android. One of the platform’s most popular features is Snapchat streaks (or a Snapstreak, as it’s officially called). Users create Snapstreaks by creating and exchanging at least one snap per day for consecutive days. This feature encourages users to constantly create snaps, which boosts engagement, interaction, and user retention. You may be interested to know that the current record for the longest Snapstreak stands at 1,756!
4. Snapchat Mobile Usage
A new report reveals the applications that are responsible for the most downstream mobile traffic. The Snapchat app is in second place worldwide based on overall mobile usage (Sandvine, 2019). Snapchat has managed to build up a solid user base, which is why it showed up strongly in each region when it comes to mobile bandwidth usage. This Snapchat statistic seems even more spectacular when you compare it to its installed user base, in comparison to other social media apps. Snapchat users are described commonly as being very “noisy”. This means that they’re very active in the application, and share pictures and videos regularly. Engagement levels are high, and many Snapchat users frequent the app multiple times per day (more on this statistic later under point number eight). This drives up the mobile usage, in comparison to other similar social networking apps. Another point to keep in mind is that Snapchat users love using Snapchat filters. But when it comes to cellular data, Snapchat data usage can be quite high. This can explain why your mobile data usage is so high if you’re a heavy Snapchat user.
5. Snapchat Downloads
With 53.5 million downloads, Snapchat is in the list of top 10 most popular apps worldwide (Sensortower, 2019). Most of the downloads of the Snapchat app are on Google play. In comparison, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube were all higher up in the list of the most popular apps worldwide, as of Q1 2019. A noteworthy mention here is that at the beginning of Q2 2019, Snapchat saw a massive increase in the number of downloads. This is closely related to the launch of the gender-swap and baby lenses on the app. Shortly after the launch, the lenses went viral. The lenses that were released on May 8, 2019 lead to a sharp increase in the daily downloads of the Snapchat app, both across iOS and Android platforms. People were using all sorts of social media apps to share how they looked with the new Snapchat lenses. The Snapchat app was downloaded an estimated 41.5 million times worldwide in May, more than twice the number of downloads from the previous month (16.8 million). Before the launch of the gender-swap and baby filters, Snapchat was being downloaded approximately 600,000 times per day worldwide. After the introduction of the new filters, the daily downloads doubled.
6. Snapchat Usage by Gender
Based on data from July 2019, Snapchat seems to be more popular among female users in comparison to male users. When it comes to the usage of Snapchat based on gender, 61 percent of users are female and 38 percent of users are male (Statista, 2019). This is different in comparison to Facebook and TikTok where male users seem to be in the majority. Women in general seem to be more fond of visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. When it comes to Snapchat part of this could be because they enjoy using the range of filters and lenses that Snapchat has to offer. If you’re a marketer, understanding the social media demographics can help you drive your brand’s online presence. Knowing that there are more female users of Snapchat, in comparison to male users can help shape your social media strategy. This means that you will be more aware of the type of messages you are communicating and the channels that you choose to communicate them through. So, if your target market is mostly female-oriented, Snapchat could be a great place for your brand to create and build a presence on. This will also help you avoid investing in a platform where your audience doesn’t have a large presence.
7. Snapchat Usage Frequency
Given the visual nature of Snapchat, its users are heavily reliant on their cameras, without which there probably wouldn’t even be Snapchat. The company estimates that the average daily active user accesses the Snapchat camera more than 20 times per day (Snapchat, 2020). That’s not surprising – considering that 95 percent of Snapchat users say using the app makes them feel happy. Snapchat’s power to entice users to socialize on the app is extremely strong. According to a study, the top reasons users use Snapchat include talking to friends, sharing photos, playing around with lenses and filters, and sharing videos. In comparison, most Twitter users use it to keep up with current events while most YouTube users hop on the platform to learn more about topics of interest. If you’re thinking of marketing on Snapchat in 2020, you may want to check out the latest Snapchat trends of 2020 that the app itself is forecasting for inspiration and ideas!
8. Snapchat Daily Users
For another Snapchat statistic about engagement, 63 percent of Snapchat users say they visit the site daily. And around half (49 percent) claim that they visit the social media app several times a day (Pew Research Center, 2018). This statistic reveals that young adults are heavy users of social media apps such as Snapchat. The same report also shows us that social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are especially popular among young adults between the ages of 18 to 24. It’s important to point out that Snapchat renewed its focus on its Android app, which was lagging behind in terms of updates. In 2019, Snapchat not only updated the app, but also optimized it for Android operating system. And since most of the users of Snapchat are using the Android operating system, that gave the app improved possibility to expand its user base. Adding to this, Snapchat also updated the face filters for Android, and added some new ones to their list, such as the gender-swap and baby filter, which ended up going viral. These efforts lead to an increase in engagement of users and as a result also lead to an increase in the number of downloads of Snapchat.
9. Snapchat Discover Feature
Nearly half of Snapchat’s daily Discover viewers watch Discover every day of the week (Snapchat, 2019). On January 27, 2015, Snap Inc. announced the launch of Snapchat Discover. Snapchat Discover is a feature that provides users with up-to-date news on current events, pop culture, and more. The launch of Snapchat Discover repositioned Snapchat as a distributor of news as well as a social media app to stay in touch with others. Users can access the Snapchat Discover feature by opening the Snapchat app on a mobile device and swiping right twice. On the Discover screen you can watch your friends’ Snapchat stories, but also publisher stories, various different shows and Snapchat stories. Snapchat Discover gives users the option to view stories created by publishers and TV networks. Popular networks create disappearing Stories comprised of text, image, and video. In this way, Snapchat’s Discover feature gives Snapchat the means to monetize content that they display to their audience. Despite its popularity, Snapchat Discover faces competition from other social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, that offer news and video content to audiences.
10. Snapchat Influencer Marketing
Almost 4 in 10 Snapchatters claim that they discover brands thanks to Snapchat celebrity endorsements and online posts (Globalwebindex, 2018). Even though Snapchat isn’t the best platform to encourage influencers, their presence has grown over the years. One of the main reasons why influencers find it hard to establish themselves on the social media platform is because there is no real middle ground where you can build up your followers. Influencers on Snapchat usually take photos of themselves using products and share these snaps on Snapchat. This works best when it doesn’t seem like actual adverts. In a way, Snapchat influencer marketing relies on word-of-mouth marketing. Brands are encouraging influencers to use their products and spread the word to their fans and followers. The important thing to keep in mind for Snapchat influencer marketing is to find a partner that can associate with your brand image. This approach isn’t just limited to Snapchat, but to any type of influencer marketing campaigns, and can directly impact the success of your campaign.
Conclusion: Snapchat Statistics
If anything these Snapchat statistics show us that Snapchat is here to stay. It has undergone a lot of growth in the past few years. And even though Snapchat saw a drop in users in 2018, it managed to make its way back out and get back on track in terms of revenue. In the coming years, Snapchat will continue to attract younger users, mainly millennials and Generation Z. And if that’s your target market, you know that Snapchat is the right place for your business to build a presence on.