Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, the parent firm of the photo-sharing app Snapchat is Snap Inc., has stated that the company plans to use experiences gained in India to expand across new markets.
“Our expansion efforts in India continue to prove successful, and we are using our learnings to inform how we approach community growth in new geographies,” Spiegel said during the platform’s quarterly earnings call. “The company has made a concerted effort over the past year to organize its team and make investments in its products to realize monetization and community growth opportunities,” Spiegel added.
This comes on the heels of Snap’s remarkably excellent fourth-quarter results. The platform’s revenue increased 42 percent to $1.3 billion. Snap’s average daily user count increased by 20 percent year on year to 319 million. Snap’s shares rose 62 percent on Thursday as a result of the announcement. Snap’s first profitable quarter as a public company also became its first profitable quarter in terms of net income.
Snap’s strong results come against the backdrop of Facebook’s terrible performance. Meta shares fell over 25 percent on Thursday following lackluster fourth-quarter results. Interestingly, Snap’s stock dropped earlier on Thursday after Meta announced its performance, but soon recovered.
Snap’s impressive performance is the result of a renewed attempt to expand its presence in the country. Many analysts attribute the platform’s growth to India. In October of last year, the platform surpassed the 100 million user mark in India. In comparison, Snapchat has only 500 million monthly active users globally. In addition, according to an App Annie report, Snapchat was the third most installed social media app in India last year.
Spiegel also added, “Our desire to build a better way of communicating visually through our camera has evolved into a leading platform for augmented reality. Our AR products and services are driving major impact at scale today, as Snapchatters use our services to shop, play, learn, explore, and entertain themselves.”
The instant messaging and photo-sharing app has been working hard to expand its footprint around the country and localize experiences for Indian users. Starting in October of last year, the firm organized a ‘Snap-In India’ event that brought together Snapchat’s creators, “Snapchatters” and storytellers. In order to monetize its platform, the company has also announced a bunch of partnerships with local players. It has a collaboration with Flipkart to offer AR experiences for the e-commerce giant.
In addition, the social media platform unveiled its Snap Map feature in India in collaboration with food delivery service Zomato. This provided Snapchat users access to restaurant information and the option to place food orders directly from their personal Map on Snapchat. Snap has also signed partnerships with a handful of companies, including Android smartphone makers and entertainment channels such as Sony and Zee TV, to expand its influence in the Indian market.
Snapchat has strong competition from other big companies in the Indian short-form video market, including YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Chingari, ShareChat, and Moj. After TikTok was banned in India in June 2020, Snapchat grabbed much-needed momentum.
Snap Inc has recognized India as an important market, as seen by the company’s ongoing outreach to Indian users. As a result, the platform has grown and attracted new users. It is a win-win situation for all parties, and it will allow Snap to apply experiences gained in India to other important emerging countries.