Snapchat may not be in the news as much as some other major apps but don't let that fool you — it remains one of the most used apps in the world and its number of users is growing. Perhaps the reason it flies under the radar comparatively is that it's primarily a messaging app of sorts, rather than a social media platform. That is changing, though, with more social features being introduced, and that is contributing to its continued growth.
Among the newest features is Spotlight, which borrows heavily from TikTok, allowing users to submit short videos to be shared with the Snapchat community. Its recently introduced Remix feature, meanwhile, is reminiscent of TikTok's Duets feature, with users able to reshare friends' Stories with their own added recordings. Snapchat's regular introduction of new features like these and its gradual 'socialification' will undoubtedly help to drive continued engagement among its users and that is reflected by its newly-released figures.
Snapchat's Q1 2021 report puts the platform's average daily active users (DAU) at 280 million. The figure has been growing continuously since Q4 2018, before which there was a slight three-quarter slump, and represents a 22 percent year-on-year increase. To give an idea of how much its new features might have driven that, the report states that more than 125 million users used Spotlight in March alone.
How Does Snapchat's Performance Compare To Others?
Mobile data and analytics firm App Annie recently reported that Snapchat was the eighth most downloaded app in the world in Q1 2021, behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zoom, and MX TakaTak. Although it doesn't place in the top 10 worldwide for monthly active users (MAUs), it places a remarkable sixth in the US alone, ahead of TikTok, Spotify, and Twitter.
The world's most popular messaging app meanwhile, WhatsApp, is thought to have around 2 billion MAUs and 1 billion DAUs. That means that Snapchat is pushing on towards a third of WhatsApp's daily audience, a figure that's all the more impressive given that WhatsApp has the might of Facebook behind it. What's more, if the number continues to grow at anything like the same rate, Snapchat can expect to have over 400 million DAUs within two years and to be approaching half a billion within three years. With revenue that increased by 66 percent year-on-year to $770 million, Snapchat's performance figures show a platform that's not only flying now but looks set to continue doing so.