Social media app Snapchat just filed its IPO paperwork with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, getting one step closer to its highly-anticipated IPO. Given the fact that this is something that looks imminent, here are three important things you need shows the similarities and differences with Twitter and Facebook´s cases.
Snapchat Needs More Than Ever To Maintain Its Users´ Numbers
Now that Snapchat is finally on Wall Street, the real game begins: maintain its users´ numbers no matter what. Naturally, this is something that represents the Holy Grail of any social media, but considering that this company is now public, this mission is needed to be accomplished more than ever, considering that it would be a major problem if the users start to decrease, and if you don´t believe, you just have to see what´s happening on Twitter to know what I´m talking about.
Right now, even when Snapchat is not having precisely a crisis on this issue, the thing is that its most ferocious competitor Instagram spans over 400 million users, and the huge problem is not only the number is extremely high, but also the fact that this have been achieved mainly because Instagram´s decision of cloning Snapchat´s features Stories. Nevertheless, considering that this social media app has managed to generate meaningful revenue from its users, this won´t represent a big threat, at least in short term, and is expected that Snapchat would have a greater performance than Twitter on this particular scenario.
Snapchat´s Importance Is Weaker Than Facebook and Twitter´s When These Became IPO
Considering that Facebook is the most popular social media network in the world, is fair to compare Snapchat with this company when it became public. On this particular field, the social media app is weaker than Mark Zuckerberg´s company and Twitter in this comparison, given the fact that while Facebook gained $1 billion three-months before it went IPO, and Twitter $422 million Snapchat only gained $404 million in the whole 2016.
Also, statistics shows that while Facebook had 526 million daily active users when it became public, and more than 901 million monthly active users, Twitter had more than 100 million and more than 230 million respectively, while Snapchat only had 161 million daily active users in December last year, and it didn't report its monthly active users. Although this doesn't seem to well for Snapchat, the thing is that this company has a lot more to offer, and only have about 5 years old, while MarkZuckerberg´s social media network was rolling in the market since 2004 before it went IPO.
Snapchat Can Increase Its Users More Than Twitter, But Not That Much As Facebook
The thing about Snapchat is that unlike Twitter, this company at least have a plan in which all its hopes can be deposit, while Jack Dorsey´s had such a concerning lack o strategy that in addition to not having a great number of users, nowadays is facing a leak of them, which is definitely the worst nightmare that any social media network can have once it finally becomes public.
Although many would believe that this automatically means that Snapchap´s destiny seems to be more similar to Facebook´s than Twitter´s, the thing is that this social media app doesn't count with the same power as Mark Zuckerberg company once it became public, and is actually starting to lose some users thanks to the way in which Facebook and Instagram has copied some of its most important features. Somehow, it can be said that Snapchat is quite original in this particular issue, considering that is not that bad as Twitter, but not that great as Facebook.
