{"id":9,"date":"2020-10-07T10:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T10:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/?p=9"},"modified":"2021-01-29T10:44:07","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T10:44:07","slug":"how-was-snapchat-able-to-grow-so-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/how-was-snapchat-able-to-grow-so-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"How was SnapChat able to grow so quickly?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The following was my response on clarity.fm to the question \u201cHow was SnapChat able to grow so quickly?\u201d.  You can view the full set of answers here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several reasons SnapChat was able to grow so quickly. Here\u2019s my take on the biggest factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Network Effects\/Communication apps \u2013 the most viral products are \nthose that have increasing value as more friends use them. Typical \nexamples include FB, LinkedIn but even more extreme as pure viral \nproducts are communication tools such as a phone, text message or email,\n which effectively have zero value without at least 1 other person using\n them. Products such as these face a huge challenge of making something \naddictive enough that it will be used at high frequency between friends \nbut if they\u2019re able to achieve this they can generate almost \nindefensible network effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Reduced friction \u2013 photo-sharing is one of the most frequent daily\n behaviors of smart phone users. By making photos private and \ndisappearing Snapchat reduced the friction or hesitation to share since:\n a) you\u2019re more likely to share a goofy photo and send more per day if \nit\u2019s not on FB and b) you\u2019re more likely to send something a little edgy\n (whatever that means to you) if it\u2019s going to disappear. In addition \nthe UI is one screen which makes it extremely easy and fast to send a \nphoto or video in the moment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Stickiness \u2013 snapchat\u2019s disappearing photo feature makes each \nincoming snap a surprise. There are several games that have leveraged \nthis technique for years to get users to come back but the brilliance of\n snapchat is that it\u2019s baked into the product itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Fun \u2013 by building a product that takes several features users are \nalready doing but packaging them together SnapChat has created a fun, \naddicting and unique brand. Being able to send a photo, draw on it and \nadd text make it more addicting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) Mobile & app rankings \u2013 it\u2019s hard to get noticed or build a \ngrowth strategy around a mobile only product. The best chance of doing \nso is to build a great product that leverages word of mouth, has great \ndesign, low activation barriers (simple) and some form of virality built\n in (easy way to invite phone contacts or syndicate to social networks).\n Once you do however reach a wide enough audience, appearing at the top \nof the charts in app rankings adds additional fuel to your mobile \ngrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past several years companies have leveraged FB as the most \neffective viral strategy but I believe we are seeing a shift towards \nyour mobile phone & contacts as being the biggest untapped \ndistribution platform and one that FB cannot control or police<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following was my response on clarity.fm to the question \u201cHow was SnapChat able to grow so quickly?\u201d.  You can view the full set of answers here. There are several reasons SnapChat was able to grow so quickly. Here\u2019s my take on the biggest factors. 1. Network Effects\/Communication apps \u2013 the most viral products are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/example-1.com:8888\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}