Snapchat is a US multimedia messaging platform. Three Stanford University students Reggie Brown, Bobby Murphy, and Evan Spiegal laid the foundation of the platform in 2011. The headquarter of the company is in Santa Monica, California, USA.
According to an estimate, the annual revenue of Snapchat in 2020 was 2.5 billion dollars, and the annual increment was 47%. The company reported a loss of 945 million dollars. The multimedia platform has got 306 million daily active users.
Some of the main products and services of Snapchat are video chat multimedia, instant messaging, and photo sharing. The top competitors of Snapchat are LinkedIn Premium, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Pinterest, and Meetup Pro.
Today, we’ll discuss Snapchat swot analysis. The strategic tool would analyze the internal strengths and weaknesses of the multimedia platform, and the external opportunities and threats
Table of Contents
Snapchat Strengths
Some of the main strengths of Snapchat are as follows;
Consistency
Snapchat achieved millions of daily active users and they share roundabout four billion snaps every day. The platform hasn’t reached this market position as a mere chance or luck, the company’s founders and their team members have worked on it day and night.
Innovation
Snapchat is a completely different, out-of-the-box, and catchy multimedia messaging platform than other competitive social media platforms. Gradually, customers accepted the innovative idea and features of the platform. In fact, they loved it because its functions are completely different and relevant to the nature of rebellious teenagers. The uniqueness and innovative features are the key strengths of the platform.
Privacy
The self-deletion feature of Snapchat makes its users feel protected because the snaps they share get deleted after 24 hours. In fact, the platform launched end-to-end encryption on videos, pictures, and text messages in 2018, it further strengthen the privacy of the platform and make it more secure.
As we know that people have become extra-cautious about their data security and privacy, and Snapchat launched such features at the right time in order to show concern for the privacy of its users.
Mobile Ready Design
The design, layout, and interface of Snapchat are simple, easy, and user friendly, the users kept on using the platform and won’t get tired of it. Its design and features have attracted the attention of customers and offer the company a unique competitive edge. However, the appearance of the platform seems like a fashion-friendly app, and that’s what exactly the young generation wants.
Brand Image
Other tech competitor companies have accepted the brand as a social media platform because of its increasing popularity. The growth rate of the brand is amplifying, and the company doesn’t need to invest resources in terms of marketing and promotional campaigns on the brand image of the platform.
Workforce
The company tests various tech skills and expertise of the potential candidates before hiring them and making part of the Snapchat team. After recruiting employees, the company invests a lot of resources in their training and professional development in order to make to reach the company’s standards.
Snapchat Weaknesses
Controversy
Controversies have been following the company ever since its foundation. Some hackers have hacked the company’s database in the early years of 2013, and it made the platform and its reputation more vulnerable. Some have also made claims and allegations that the purpose of the platform is offensive.
Since a vast majority of its target market is teenagers, and their parents don’t trust the multimedia messaging app as it is a threat to their privacy. The company should re-brand its marketing strategy because the parent won’t allow them to use the platform if they don’t trust it.
Low Diversification
Multimedia messaging is the main specialty of the platform. Snapchat has made failed attempts to diversify from its main area, and it resulted in the form of loss of resources and jeopardized the company’s reputation and credibility in the market. The platform is falling behind because of limited diversification.
Financial Planning
The growth and success of any platform or company are on financial planning. Snapchat has been heavily relying on advertisements as its main source of earning, 96% in 2020 to be more precise. That’s why when it comes to expansion and diversification, then its financial approach isn’t sound.
Lack of Professionalism
Snapchat doesn’t seem to show and maintain a professional attitude as a tech company in the social media market. It caused a lot of issues and troubles to the company that could have been resolved with the professional approach, but the company’s policymakers followed the other way around. That’s why tech competitors’ companies don’t consider the platform a serious thing.
Snapchat Opportunities
Market Expansion
As we know that Snapchat is famous among young teenagers. Now, the company should expand its target market by launching a marketing and promotional campaign. If we study the latest statistics, then the usage of the internet and smartphones has been increasing. It’s an excellent opportunity for Snapchat to reach billion of users through its multimedia messaging platform.
Launching New Features
It’s no doubt that Snapchat has launched many new features over the years. The platform should keep developing new features to attract the attention of customers.
Customer Engagement
The focus of Snapchat should be on increasing customer engagement on the platform. It’s because the growth rate of the platform has a close association with customer engagement. However, hashtags are becoming popular among users, and they would help the company to increase user engagements.
Snapchat Threats
High Competition
There are many multimedia messaging platforms in the market, and they all offer almost similar types of services. Some of them belong to the world’s top tech giant companies. When it comes to surpassing their market share, then it is nearly an impossible task.
For instance, messenger and WhatsApp are the subsidiary products of Facebook, and FB is one of the world’s top five tech giant companies. The company has got a lot of resources and tech capabilities to copy any type of new feature and creatively present it in a better. Like Messenger and WhatsApp are using the status feature of Snapchat.
Customer Behavior
We’re living in a world of glamour; customers are always looking for something. They change their mind instantly with the glimpse of an eye. Therefore, Snapchat should keep this behavior in their mind while launching new features. The goal should be to make the customers stay on the platform. In order to achieve this goal, the company should study the growing customer market trends, their interest and passion level, and their differences for different demographics.
Negative Feedback
Some people have used the platform for harassment and cyberbullying, and many people have protested against such vulgar content. Such issues could tarnish the company’s reputation, and it would push away a lot of current and upcoming users.
Legal Issues
Many countries are introducing new laws and regulations to limit the usage and freedom of social media platforms. In fact, some countries have prohibited the usage of Snapchat in their country. This is a serious issue, and it could badly impact the growth and reach of the platform.
Conclusion
After carefully studying Snapchat swot analysis, we’ve concluded that it’s a very famous multimedia messaging platform. The company should be aware of its weaknesses and threats and focus on strengths and opportunities.
