Snapchat is a photo and video messaging app launched in 2011 that allows users to take snaps that last only a few seconds before disappearing. It has grown tremendously in popularity among teens and young adults. Snapchat differentiates itself from other social media through its focus on ephemeral content sharing and augmented reality features like lenses and geofilters. The company generates revenue through advertising like snap ads, discover ads, sponsored lenses and geofilters. Snapchat continues to grow its userbase, develop new product features, and acquire other companies to strengthen its position in the competitive social media landscape.

2. What is Snapchat?
A photo- and video messaging app launched in
2011 with a unique twist: photos and videos
only last a brief amount of time before they
disappear forever, making the app ephemeral
in nature, though you can take a screenshot of
snaps to save them in picture form.
How it works.
The app's main
screen is your
camera view.
Once down-
loaded, the app
will always open
and show the
camera view
1
2
The top left-hand
corner has a flash
icon for toggling
the camera's flash
The center area is
your camera view
The top-right corner
has a camera button
for toggling the
camera between
front- and rear-
facing mode
3
On the bottom of the camera view there is a big
round camera button at center for taking photos
and videos (a.k.a. Snaps). Hold the camera button
down to record a video with sound, or tap the
camera button to take a picture.
The square icon at
bottom left displays
how many unread
snaps are waiting
for you. Tap it or
swipe from left to
read your snaps,
directly message
friends, or search.
4
The bottom right
corner will show a
three-line icon (or
"+" if you have
stories from
followers available).
You can tap it or
swipe from right
when you want to
view stories or
discover content
from publishers like
ESPN, Food
Network, etc.
5Features
Adding Contacts: Swipe down
on the main screen to add contacts,
or tap the Snapchat logo at the top.
Making Snaps: Tap the large
camera button to take a snap, or hold
down to record a video.
Sending Snaps: Tap the
arrow-shaped icon at bottom right
to send your snap to a friend.
Viewing Snapbacks: Select the
square/numbered icon to see a feed of
all sent snaps and replies.
Sending Stories: Tap the story
icon from the preview screen.
Followers will be able to view it an
unlimited times in one day.
Viewing Stories: Tap the three-
line icon on the camera screen. There
will be a Stories screen from contacts.
Viewing Scores: Scores are the
sum of sent and received chats which
appears next to the name under
the Snapchat logo.
Chatting with Friends: Swipe
from left on the camera screen to
access the chat feature.
Here: Live video chat with friends by
pressing the blue camera button at
right in any message thread.
Sending Money: Snapchat
partnered with Square to let you use
your debit card to pat for goods of send
money to friends.
Applying Lenses: Press and hold
on your face during a selfie to activate
a new feature called Lenses. It includes
facial recognition software that can
distort your expression and apply
various effects to your face.
Extra Replays: Snapchat added a
Replay feature allowing you to briefly
relive snaps one more time.
Snapchat Memories:
Save snaps to Memories - camera
roll/collection, where you can organize,
edit, search, lock, and share snaps.
Snapshot Discover: Find stories
from specific editorial teams. Swipe from
left on the camera screen and tap the
Discover circle icon at top-right.
Source: Pocket-lint, Crunchbase

3. Timeline
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
7/11
Creation:
Snapchat
launched under
the name
Picaboo, as
an iOS app
3-4/12
Funding:
Lightspeed
Ventures
invests
$485,000 in the
company
10/29/12
Product:
Launches
an Android
app
12/14/12
Product: Releases video
sharing and begins
prototyping monetization
features
2/21/13
Product:
Launches
video
sharing on
its Android
app
6/22/16
Funding: Raises $80
million Series B at a
valuation of about
$800 million. Investors
include Institutional
Venture Partners,
Benchmark Capital,
Lightspeed Ventures,
General Catalyst
Partners and SV Angel
12/12/12
Funding:
Raises north of
$10 million at a
$70 million
valuation. Funders
include Benchmar
k Capital
9/9/13
Product: Releases
Snapchat Micro
10/3/13
Product: Launches
Snapchat Stories
11/13/13
Potential Acquisition:
Spurns a $3 billion
acquisition offer from
Facebook
12/11/13
Funding:
Raises $50
million in
Series C
funding
from Coatue
Management
11/20/13
Product: Allows users to
replay one snap a day,
sacrificing some of its
ephemerality
5/1/14
Product: Adds
ephemeral text chat
and video calling
6/17/14
Product: Launches
collaborative timelines
based on events
8/29/14
Product: Adds a "Live"
section that allows
people to follow
events live
9/4/14
Product: Begins
using push notifications
for Snapchat Stories
10/17/14
Product/Monetization:
Announces that users will
receive ads from brands
11/17/14
Product: Announces
Snapcash, a tool to send
each other money
easily through the app
12/16/14
Product/Acquisitions
by Snapchat: Leaked emails
from Sony Pictures indicate a
music feature, acquired QR scan
company scan.me for $50 million,
and acquired Vergence Eyeglass
Cam for $15 million
12/31/14
Funding:
Raises $485
million from
23 investors
for its Series D
round at a
valuation of
at least
$10 billion
1/27/15
Product: Launches
Discover, a daily feed
comprising content
from brands
like ESPN, CNN, Vice,
and Warner
Music, National
Geographic, Yahoo
News, and others
5/26/15
Userbase: 100 million
currently active users, who
send snaps at a rate over
400 million a day & seeing
2 billion video views a day
8/12/15
Product: Launches
a new mode
called Travel
Mode in its iOS
and Android apps
10/28/15
Product: Adds slow-mo, fast-
forward and rewind video
filters. Also adds 3D touch
capabilities for iPhone
11/9/15
Userbase:
6 billion
daily video
views, up
from 2
billion in
May
11/10/15
Financial: Fidelity Investments
marked down valuation by
25%, from $30.72 a share to
$22.91 a share
3/24/16
Acquisitions
by Snapchat:
Acquires
Bitstrips, the
company
that makes
bitmojis
(personalized
emojis)
5/23/16
Product: Adds
support for
decorating
snaps with
200+ stickers
4/28/16
Userbase:
Reaches
10 billion
daily video
views, up
from 6 billion
in November
2015
6/3/16
Acquisitions by
Snapchat:
Acquires Seene,
a startup
working on
three-
dimensional
face scanning
(also called the
"3D selfie
startup")
5/26/16
Funding: Reports
latest Series F
round ($1.8 billion
in funds raised)
8/2/16
Competition:
Instagram
launches
Instagram
Stories
7/6/16
Product:
Announces
Snapchat
Memories
8/15/16
Acquisitions
by Snapchat:
Acquires
mobile
search
app Vurb
for $110M
Source: Crunchbase, Techcrunch

4. Snapchat position in social media space
Piper Jaffray Teen Survey – Social Networking
Spring 2015
In the investment firm’s semi-annual survey among teens, Snapchat had
surpassed Instagram and Twitter as the social media platform of choice.
1
2
4
8
13
14
24
32
Google+
Pinterest
Tumblr
Other
Snapchat
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Rest of the World
Europe
North America
120m
0m
20m
40m
60m
80m
100m
Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec
2014 2015
50m
59m
65m
74m
81m
89m
99m
110m
Piper Jaffray Teen Survey – Social Networking
Spring 2016
In the investment firm’s semi-annual survey among teens, Snapchat had
surpassed Instagram and Twitter as the social media platform of choice.
1
2
2
5
17
18
27
28
Google+
Pinterest
Tumblr
Other
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Snapchat
4
Twitter (TWTR) was
downgraded to "sell" from
"hold" at Evercore due, in
part, to an increased threat
of competition from
Snapchat.
Source: Nielsen Media Impact, Reach Duplication, Nielsen Total Media Fusion/GfK MRI Survey of The American Consumer 9/1/2015 – 9/30/2015
(Television, Internet, and Mobile)
Survey: PiperJaffray
• Characterization of being a pop-culture icon has propelled Snapchat
to become a home screen app for "hundreds of millions of people."
• "Snapchat has a wonderful position, but it's still a competitive market
and it still has to prove its business. It's growing very quickly. All signs
point to $300 million in revenue this year, which is significant,
consistent growth.”
• Snapchat will face competition from the likes of Facebook's (FB)
Instagram, which just added a Snapchat-like "Story" feature to its
app, and Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube.
1
+10 billion views
daily, average
user views 60
videos per day,
60+ mm view
discover monthly
2
On any given
day Snapchat
reaches 41% of
all 18-34 year-
olds in the
United States
3
Daily Active Users
Globally: 110mm
users As of
December 2015
9
Snapchat is the second-most downloaded
app in the US after Facebook Messenger,
according to SurveyMonkey. The data was
collected in the first six months of 2016 in
the US. Snapchat has about 54.5 million
downloads on Android and iOS combined
5
% of Snapchat
daily users that
contribute
content (As of
3/25/16): 60%
10
Snapchat surpassed Instagram as the social media base of choice among
teens, according to Piper Jaffray. In its semi-annual “Taking Stock With
Teens” study conducted, Snapchat took 28% of the votes for the most
important social network among 6,350 U.S. teens surveyed, who
averaged around 17 years of age. That number is up from 19% in the Fall
2015 survey, indicating that the mobile app had surpassed Instagram,
which had 27% of the vote this round compared with 33% last fall.
1
Average number
of photos shared
on Snapchat every
second (As of
1/26/16): 9,000
snaps per second
2
Reported amount
of revenue that
Snapchat is
expected to
generate in 2016:
$300-350mm
3
Reported value of
Snapchat (As of
3/7/16):
$16billion

5. ads
Why
are
better
Influencer
Marketing
offer compelling third-party
marketing opportunities with
cultivated audiences
Snap Ads
offer the best in mobile video ads with
the choice to add an interactive element
Snap Ads always begin with an up to 10-second
vertical, full screen video ad that appears in the
context of other Snaps. You can also give
Snapchatters the choice to swipe up and see more,
just like they do elsewhere on Snapchat.
1 Swiping up reveals extended content like
a long form video, article, app install ad, or
mobile website. The swipe-up rate for Snap
Ads is 5x higher than the average click-
through rate on comparable platforms.
2
Discover Ads: The main source of
advertising is going to be with the Discover
feature on Snapchat. Unlike a Facebook,
Google, or even a YouTube ad, these video
ads fill the entire screen with vivid images
and full audio, while additionally allowing
users to swipe up for more information.
This groundbreaking “swipe up” feature
changes the game of advertising,
essentially turning advertisements into
valuable content that can be found across
multiple networks on Snapchat.
Sponsored Geofilters
are tiny pieces of art that always make
an impression.
When Snapchatters in the location(s) of
your choice take a Snap, they’ll be able to
see your Geofilter and use it to explain
where, when, and why they took the Snap.
1 Whether your campaign covers a
specific location, a major event, or
every mall in America, Geofilters
uniquely allow brands to take part in
the hundreds of millions of Snaps sent
between friends each day on Snapchat.
2 In the US, a single National Sponsored
Geofilter typically reaches 40% to
60% of daily Snapchatters.
Sponsored Lenses
after a completely new take on
brand activation, offering not just
an impression, but “play time” —
the time Snapchatters spend
playing with the interactive ad
you’ve created
1 To activate Lenses, Snapchatters
simply press and hold on their faces.
Some Lenses include prompts like
“raise your eyebrows” to trigger an
animation, adding a fun twist to the
experience. And when you’re finished
playing, it’s easy to send Lenses to a
friend or post one to your Story. On
average, Snapchatters play with a
Sponsored Lens for 20 seconds.
1 Takeover: A Snapchat takeover is
when a company allows a Snapchat
Influencer to take control of the
brand for a set period of time.
Effective way for company to build
followers and gain brand awareness
2 Promotion: Offer deal in
return to watch the brands
content on Snapchat
3 Unboxing: Influencers unbox
products while snapping the
experience to their followers
4 Product Placements: Brands
partner with influencers to
authentically place their products
into their Snapchat Content
Source: Snapchat, AdEspresso, Revolt Agency

6. Future Plans
1
According to a report from Recode,
Joanna Coles, member of Snapchat’s
board of directors and editor-in-chief
of Cosmopolitan, said that the
company is building an “e-commerce
platform” so you’ll be able to shop
right inside Discover.
According to Clement Xue, Snapchat’s
director of revenue operations, the
company will roll out behavioural
targeting capabilities in the third quarter
of 2016. What this means is that it will
target you with ads based on your in-app
activity (i.e., the accounts you follow, and
the Discover media channels you
frequently watch)
Snapchat is also partnering with media
companies to look at how it can explore
new content. The app has partnered with
NBC to bring highlights from Olympics 2016
to its platform. According to reports, this
the first time ever that NBC has agreed to
share videos of the Olympic games with
another platform. The daily ‘live videos’ on
Snapchat are created using content by NBC.
There’s also a Discover channel that has
short videos curated by BuzzFeed.
Recent Acquisition Indication: Vurb says it
is more than just a search app. It lets users
make reservations, find places, book cabs
etc., without opening multiple apps and
pulls them in a card-like format. Vurb
makes suggestions and shows results
tailored to what they like, and keeps them
updated on trending topics, and is
currently available on both Android and
iOS. Given the acquisition, there is
potential for Snapchat to create an end to
end ecosystem for a consumer
2
4 3
Source: Recode, NBC, Crunchbase