The popular social media app, Snapchat had a rough go over the past few years. Some format and design issues caused a decline in users, but when three new face filters went viral, Snapchat had a major increase in app downloads and revenue. Snapchat has been popular since its release in 2011, but it is incomparable to where it is now. With over 200 million daily users, Snapchat is one of the most popular social media apps.
As mentioned before, Snapchat was having some issues with a decline in daily users, so their first quarter results brought in approximately 190 million daily users. Three face filters gave the company the boost they had been waiting for. These filters transformed your face into either a baby, a man or a woman, and people went crazy over them. Celebrities started posting pictures of themselves with the face filters, and the trend took off from there. When Snapchat’s second quarter results were released, the number of daily users skyrocketed. Now, Snapchat brings in a whopping 203 million daily users. Use of the app was not the only benefit these filters brought. Their revenue also increased by 48%!
Snapchat used augmented reality lenses to create the three filters, and they credit approximately 9 million new daily users to this advancement because it gets the users involved with the app. All Snapchat needed to regain and reengage its users was something to make it stand out from other apps, and these face filters did the trick. The Snapchat company also wanted to keep these new users, so they updated their app, and for android users, they completely rebuilt it.
Before reading this article, I had no idea how much of an impact these filters had on Snapchat’s revenue and use. These numbers are massive, and I would never have expected three filters to generate so much buzz. I did use each of the three filters, and I thought they were pretty weird, so the only one I used more than once was the baby one.
https://adage.com/article/digital/snapchat-attracts-13-million-new-daily-users-thanks-gender-swap-filter/2185591
