The forecast for Snapchat users in the UK is 16.2 million, of which 5 million will be 18-24. By comparison, the number of UK Facebook users aged 18 to 24 is predicted to be 4.5 million at the end of the year (down 1.8% over 2017).
Following a 2% decline in daily active users earlier this year, Snapchat has embarked on several fresh innovations to attract new users:
Snap Kits for app makers wishing to integrate Snap functionality (this lets other apps used Snapchat features, including stickers and Bitmoji)
Snapchat Storytellers aims to facilitate collaborations between its top creators and advertisers, and interestingly won’t take any cut of the deals it helps to arrange
TechCrunch recently reported that Snapchat is working on a new visual search tool called “Eagle” in partnership with Amazon. With Eagle, users will be able to purchase their products directly from Amazon simply by taking photos of a product or it’s barcode
Whilst Facebook is still very much the market leader for overall audience reach, it’s good to see Snapchat challenging its younger audience base and driving innovation. Following the negative attention around data protection earlier this year (prompted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal), Facebook is working to rebuild user’s trust through updated privacy settings and enticing users in with its new channel for video content “Facebook Watch”. Previously only available in the US, Watch is now available worldwide – It’ll be interesting to see the impact this has on UK usership.Jessica Hughes, Account Manager
