
Trends come and go. Some trends die out fast, while others take the world by storm by sticking around until eventually another one takes the spotlight. SnapChat has proved to be a trend that’s been in the spotlight for quite some time. SnapChat is an app designed to send and receive impermanent pictures. SnapChat allows users to share life instantly to your friends through pictures and video.The first app of its kind, SnapChat gained immense popularity and still continues to trend among millennials today with its ever changing face.
It was first launched under the name “Picaboo” in July 2011 by creator, Evan Spiegel and co-creator Bobby Murphy where it was later relaunched in September under its new name SnapChat. Spiegel created and launched the app in his dad’s living room when he was only 20 years old. The app’s mascot of the ghost is named “Ghostface Chillah” which was referenced from the Wu Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat) Now, at the age of 25, Spiegel is worth 2.1 Billion for his ingenious and popular invention. Read it here in Forbes.
In May 2012, SnapChat started small with 25 images being sent every second among users. By November, SnapChat had been released for the Android, and users had accumulated to share over 1 billion photos since its launch. Learn about it on wikipedia here, By May 2013, SnapChat had reached 150 million snaps per day, and big corporate companies such as Taco Bell had jumped on the trend.
SnapChat has only gone up and rose in popularity since. Perhaps the reason Siegel’s invention has become so popular is because his team keeps updating the app and adding more accessories to the app that keep it relevant.
SnapChat has added such features like “snap story” where you can share a snap with all your friends for 24 hours on a timeline. A very popular addition was the snap chat filter that was added in December 2013, along with timestamps, temperature, speed overlay, and the ability to replay a snap. In May 2014, the app added “the snap story” where users could share a snap on a timeline with all their friends for 24 hours.
SnapChat again keeps their app relevant by adding geofilters- an image tag that shares your location last summer in July. McDonalds was the first company to pay SnapChat for a geo filter for an advertising campaign. If there was any hesitation that SnapChat was beginning to get boring, the app wowed users by adding a facial recognition feature that allows for an animated selfie lens. (Check it out here.
SnapChat now currently has 100 million active daily users and accounts for over 30% of all millennial social media users, with over 400 million snaps being sent per day. Snapchat has significantly grown in popularity since its release in 2011.
Celebrities often endorse SnapChat and use it to invite fans into their everyday lives. Popular snap accounts belong to such celebrities a DJ Khaled and actor/singer Jared Leto. DJ Khaled obtained the most watched snap stories in the year 2015. His corky habits of getting pulled over on his jet ski, and continuous positivity of life lessons blew up among social media. Jared Leto also obtained a very popular account through a more artistic form by sharing his ever changing hair styles through his selfies, and through his snap art. Read about it here.
SnapChat has clutched society with its new age technology that stays relevant to its users in this generation of millennials. According to a Piper Jaffray survey, SnapChat is more popular than Facebook among teenagers. With its ever changing face, and increasing support, SnapChat will continue to dominate social media platforms.