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In 2011, Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown created Snapchat as a new way for people to send photos and videos. The rise of Snapchat as one of the more influential social media platforms can be followed alongside the rise of Snapchat statistics, Snapchat users, and, some other really odd Snapchat stats.

Brown first brought the idea for Snapchat to Spiegel, who had business experience, and Murphy, who had coding experience. As a result, the startup experienced a similar business hiccup to Facebook with regards to ownership and all the piles of money the company was eventually worth.

In 2013, the ousted Brown tried to renegotiate his share regarding company ownership but received no equities. Instead, he settled for $157.5 million and was given credit as one of the original founders of Snapchat.

In the beginning, Snapchat users could only send and receive photos and video messages of up to 10 seconds, after which time they’d disappear. In October 2013, Snapchat introduced Stories (which Facebook, Instagram, and many other social networks eventually latched onto and integrated into their platforms), which were available for 24 hours. Unlike with the standard messaging feature, any user following a person could view the Snapchat Story (assuming public sharing).

However, perhaps Snapchat’s biggest breakthrough beyond its original concept was filters. These filters introduced augmented reality objects to pictures, allowing Snapchat users to show off whiskers or top hats (or any number of quirky, fun adjustments to reality).

Who hasn’t given themselves a Snapchat flower crown or puppy dog ears?

“Snapchat isn’t about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It’s about communicating with the full range of human emotion — not just what appears to be pretty or perfect,” CEO Evan Spiegel explained. This position stands in stark contrast to Instagram, which has a reputation for being users’ go-to for creating personal highlight reels that show off their best selves.

Additionally, Spiegel points out that disappearing content was an answer to the stress caused by content that stays permanently on the internet. Even if you untag yourself from a Facebook photo, whatever is online can always be rediscovered.

Snapchat stats, however, are even more revealing than the company’s mission statement.

• Who Snaps for Snapchat? A Look at Snapchat Users
• Snapchat Stats on Snapchat Use
• Snapchat Revenue? More Like Snapchat Statistics About Financial Fall
• What’s Going on With Snapchat Content?
• Snapchat Growth: Adversity Facing Snapchat Advertising
• What About Snapchat Influencers?
• Know What’s New with Snapchat

Who Snaps for Snapchat? A Look at Snapchat Users

As of the first quarter of 2014, Snapchat had 46 million active users, and as of the fourth quarter of 2018, they had 186 million active users. That’s quite a bit of growth!

Though the bump in users might seem like a lot, in actuality, Snapchats’ growth has slowed (as you can see above) since the launch of Instagram Stories—an almost exact copy of Snapchat’s My Stories concept. Instagram’s users now post twice as many stories as Snapchat users.

Though the exact Snapchat statistics for the platform’s demographics differ from source to source, all of them agree that the Snapchat is dominated by users younger than 25 years old. According to Pew Research, 78% of all 18 to 24-year-old Americans use the platform.

For this age bracket, this leaves Snapchat behind Facebook but ahead of Instagram.

Unlike Facebook, which eMarketer predicts will decline in the 12- to 17-year-old age range by 3.4% (the first time the firm has foreseen a decline in Facebook users in any age group), Snapchat usage was expected to pick up the slack, along with Instagram.

Though Facebook remains the undisputed giant of the social networking world, some predict that without additional platform changes, it may lose out on capturing the next generation of internet users, as a majority of millennials and Gen Z primarily communicate visually.

Snapchat Stats on Snapchat Use

According to Pew Research, 63% of Snapchat users visit the site daily. This is basically the same as Instagram but well behind Facebook, which sees about 75% of its users visit the site daily.

Again, there is a strong showing from the 18- to 24-year-olds, with 82% of them checking Snapchat daily, and 71% of those users logging in multiple times a day. When you open that age bracket up a little to include all millennials, it turns out that such Snapchat users spend as much as 40 minutes a day on the platform.

To help push daily interactions on the platform, Snapchat introduced “streaks.” When two Snapchat users exchange direct messages for at least three consecutive days, a fire sign and number will appear next to their username. In this way, Snapchat introduced a gamification element to encourage users to keep logging in and using the app.

However, when it comes to usage, Instagram Stories still trumps Snapchat, with more influencers preferring the former over the latter. Instagram continues to release new updates for Stories, such as allowing accounts with more than 10,000 followers to post links on Stories, making it a better platform for advertisers and influencers. Influencers post twice as many Instagram Stories than Snapchat Stories.

Since Instagram Stories launched, Snapchat user and engagement has gone down 15-40%.

Snapchat Revenue? More Like Snapchat Statistics About Financial Fall

Snapchat might have missed its opportunity to cash out in 2013 when Facebook reportedly offered to buy the company for $3 billion. In May 2018, the company’s stock fell to $10.95/share from their original value of $27.09/share.

Here’s how their stock has been performing since the IPO to the date of this article’s publication:

Of course, there was plenty of upswing before Snap’s fall on the market, starting with Snapchat, Inc. going through a rebranding where they renamed the company Snap, Inc. in 2016 as part of an effort to reposition itself as a camera company.

Snap’s revenue reached $825 million in 2017, more than double that of their revenue in 2016. In February of that year, Snap, Inc. filed for their IPO. However, it failed to hit the company’s targets. In fact, despite $149.6 million in revenue, according to Forbes, Snap reported a net loss of $2.2 billion in Q1 of 2017. They lost nearly $40 million on unsold Spectacles they hastily manufactured without factoring in a matching demand.

In Q1 of 2018, Snap’s revenue grew to $230.7 million, up 54% due to an increase in Snap Ads, but down 19% sequentially due to users’ rejection of the redesign.

So, did Snap miss its chance to sell to Facebook or is it going