Snapchat is a messaging app that solely relies on visual communication formats i.e., images and videos. Since it was developed in 2011 by students at the Stanford University, it has undergone significant improvements and experienced notable growth. Lots of the features in the original version have been improved and added upon, and the app has seen a massive increase in its user base.
For instance, it started out by offering only a photo-sharing functionality but then later introduced videos. It also introduced 24-hour Stories in 2013, which inspired Instagram to develop their own Stories feature. More recently, Snapchat introduced a new feature to let users store some of their favourite Stories as Memories.
There have been tons of new features and developments over the years, and the platform has experienced some changes in usage and revenue generation as well. It is also becoming a popular platform in influencer marketing.
In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at some of the most important Snapchat statistics to better understand where it stands today. Let’s get started.
Snapchat Statistics, Revenue, and More:
Snapchat User Statistics
First, let's take a look at just how popular this app is, based on the number of users. As of the third quarter of 2022, the app had 363 million daily active users. This is an 18% increase from the Q3 numbers of 2021 when there were 306 million daily active users.
Source: Statista
Snapchat first became popular in 2014, growing consistently until it received a noticeable boost in support in 2016. Growth continued, although at a slower rate over 2017. There was a slight drop in user count during 2018, although Q3 and Q4 numbers remained the same before growing again.
Demographics of U.S. Snapchat Users
Snapchat seems to be more popular among a younger crowd, according to the Pew Research Center. 67% of American internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 used Snapchat in 2022. Among Americans aged 30 to 49, 29% of them were Snapchat users. The usage rate faces a massive drop among those aged between 50 and 64 at only 3%, with only 1% of those aged over 65 admitting to using Snapchat.
According to the latest Piper Sandler survey, Snapchat continues to be among the top three favorite apps among teens in America. 31% percent of participants in the fall 2022 poll said they use the platform. However, its popularity has dropped to second place behind TikTok, which now corners 33% of teen users. Meanwhile, Instagram is in third place with 20% of U.S.-based teens regularly using the app.
Source: pipersandler.com
Demographics of U.K. Snapchat Users
Snapchat users in the U.K. dipped from 21.1 million in 2021 to 20.65 million in 2022 but the country remains one of the app’s top markets. The U.K. is in fifth place behind Pakistan according to Statista’s ranking of the highest number of Snapchat users.
The joint Social Snapshot report of Beatfreeks, National Youth Trends, and Be Internet Citizen shows that the app is the most widely used messaging platform among U.K.-based youth. 43% of teens are active on Snapchat daily. Meanwhile, WhatsApp comes in second place, cornering 36% of users. Rounding up the top four are Discord (9%) and Twitch (6%).
However, users aged four to 18 prefer TikTok (48%) and Facebook (41%) for making short videos compared to Snapchat (40%).
Snapchat Users by Gender
There is some difference in the distribution of Snapchat users by gender. It seems that the platform is more popular among women. About 53% of the app's users worldwide are female while about 46% are male. In the U.S., 55.1% of Snapchatters are women—about the same percentage in the U.K. (55.5%).
A California State University study says that Snapchat’s beauty filters play a major role in its popularity among females. Around 2017, the app made headlines as the most widely used social media for dating—a trend that lingered until 2020.
Snapchat Usage Statistics: How People Use the Platform
When it comes to usage, Snapchat gets almost as much attention as Instagram and exceeds Facebook. Sensor Tower’s Q2 2022 Consumer Intelligence report says that 34% of Snapchat users access the app daily, about the same number as Instagram account holders. The open rate of both apps beats Facebook, with only 31% of its users opening it daily.
Q2 2022 data from Statista shows that daily usage for Snapchat is 21 minutes. The app’s engagement has gone down to sixth place, behind Twitter users who average 29 minutes daily.
Source: Statista
TikTok tops the list at 95 minutes of average daily usage followed by YouTube (74 minutes), Instagram (51 minutes), and Facebook (49 minutes).
Meanwhile, Snapchat’s October 2022 investor presentation shows that 250 million users engage with Snapchat's augmented reality (AR). These users play with the app’s Lenses more than six billion times a day. Account holders create over six billion Snaps daily.
According to the "The Snapchat Generation 2022" report, 93% of Snapchatters use the app to share and celebrate memorable moments with family and friends. 97% of Snapchat account holders use AR to enhance and personalize the images and videos they send to their contacts. Three in five Snapchatters believe that these visual effects help produce a more personal connection.
Content Creation
Snap’s Q3 2022 report said that the app has more than 800 content partners from over 20 countries. Snapchat users produce more than 525,000 Spotlight videos per day on average. About 300 million Snapchat users watch Spotlight, which is available in over 150 countries.
Snap Inc. announced in October 2020 that it will spend $1 million on creators for an entire year this 2022. The company explained that it aims to distribute the payouts to more markets. Snap assured that the minimum payout will stay at $250 per Spotlight, according to TechCrunch's source. Snapchat reportedly paid creators $250 million in 2021.
The company recently introduced Spotlight Challenges. It encourages creators to produce Snaps using specific Lenses, #Topics, or Sounds. Each challenge comes with a $1,000 to $25,000 prize.
Each challenge will pick three to five winners from a shortlist of the 50 most relevant and highly viewed submissions judged according to the following:
- Creativity
- Originality
- Innovative use of Snap creative tools
- A unique point of view
- Entertainment value
Shopping
The report added that the AR feature creates an immersive shopping experience for Snapchatters. 93% use the app for shopping as they can “try on” clothes, makeup, eyewear, and other products without going to the physical store. Snapchatters are 1.6 times more likely to have used AR for virtual try-ons compared to people who do not use this social channel. AR-guided shopping has also helped brands see a 25% decline in returns.
Since Snapchat is mostly used for socializing and shopping, people hardly use it as a news source. Pew Research Center's "Social Media and News Fact Sheet" shows that Facebook users have the highest number of news consumers at 31% followed by 25% of YouTube users. Twitter (14%), Instagram (13%), and TikTok (10%) complete the top five.
Source: Pewresearch
Snapchat+
In June 2022, Snap Inc. rolled out Snapchat+, a subscription-based service worth $3.99 per month. With Snapchat+, you get exclusive and experimental features with which you can further personalize your images and videos. These features include additional icons, backgrounds, custom notification sounds, and a My Story Timer that you can set for up to a week.
Figures from the Q3 2022 report of Snap Inc.—the parent company of Snapchat—showed that more than 1.5 million users have subscribed to Snapchat+. The service was only available in nine countries during the launch but is now accessible in more than 170 nations.
Snapchat Revenue Statistics
Snapchat’s global revenues for Q3 2022 stood at $1.12 billion, a 6% increase from the same period in 2021. The revenues for 2021 amounted to $4.1 billion, up 64% from the previous year.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) is the highest in North America ($8.13). Snapchat's ARPU in Europe was $1.83 while the worldwide ARPU was USD3.11 for the third quarter.
Source: Statista
So naturally, their global average revenue per user also increased along with this revenue growth. Back in Q1 2016 average revenue per user (ARPU) was just $0.32. This grew steadily for most of that year, reaching $1.05 per user in Q4 2016. ARPU has fluctuated each quarter since then (recognizing some seasonality of revenue generation), but the overall trend has been upward. It first broke the $2.00 mark in Q4 2018, with an ARPU of $2.09. However, it took until Q4 2020 for ARPU to exceed $3, reaching $3.44.
The increase in revenue is particularly evident in North America and, to a lesser extent, Europe. In the case of North America, ARPU rose from $5.94 in Q1 2021 to $7.77 in Q1 2022. The increase in Europe was from $1.48 to $1.93. And a slight increase in the rest of the world, from $0.93 to $0.95.
Snapchat Marketing and Advertising Statistics
As you may already know, Snapchat is much less popular for marketing than other platforms like Instagram and Facebook. But it is experiencing some improvement in this aspect with more marketers leveraging the platform for their marketing campaigns. It does offer some interesting advertising features such as sponsored lenses.
Hootsuite and We Are Social's Digital 2022 report examines the advertising audience of each social network, including Snapchat, as of Q4 2020. They observe that the potential audience that can be reached with adverts on Snapchat is 575.7 million, which is 9.2% of the total population aged 13+. In the 2021 report, the potential audience reach was 498.2 million—representing 8.2% of the total population aged 13+.
India has the largest Snapchat audience at 144.35 million based on Statista's April 2022 data. The U.S. was in second place at 107.95 million. The next ranking nations have an audience above 20 million: France (24.7 million), Pakistan (22.25 million), the United Kingdom (21.35 million), and Saudi Arabia (20.45 million).
Source: Statista
Of the various modes of brand discovery, 27% of the public learn about products and services through social media advertising, according to the Digital 2020 report. It is no wonder that 35 million businesses use Snapchat for marketing.
Pricing
The cost for Snap Ads varies by campaign but starts at $3,000/month in ad spend. Snapchat Sponsored Lenses cost $450,000 per day between Sunday and Thursday, $500,000 for Fridays and Saturdays, and $700,000 plus for holidays or special events like Super Bowl. Snapchat Discover ads, which receive premium placement at the top of the app, start at $50,000 per day. At one point, Snapchat Discover ads cost $750,000 for one day. Snap Ads to A.R. cost a more affordable $50 for a 10-second ad between Snapchat Discover videos.
New: Dynamic Travel Ads
Also, in June 2022, Snapchat launched Dynamic Travel Ads amid the post-pandemic travel boom worldwide. The company is banking on the combined buying power of Snapchatters worldwide, which is worth $4.4 trillion. Moreover, 76% of the app's users plan to travel in the immediate future as overseas tourism eases. Results of a 2021 GlobalWebIndex survey showed that travel-related ads motivate 37% of Snapchatters to make travel reservations.
The strong performance of Snapchat's location features also gives Snap Inc. enough reason to expect a robust take-up of this new service. Among this feature’s recent milestones include the following:
- Snaps of unique places have already reached 30 million spots worldwide.
- Snapchat has added more than 49 million new locations to the Snap Map.
- Over 70% of Snapchatters use Snap Map to know where their friends are and get updates from them.
When it comes to working with influencers on Snapchat, brands are doing it, but not as much as they do on other platforms. According to DataReportal, only 1,4% of users say that Snapchat is their favorite platform.
What this means for brands is that Snapchat is less saturated than other social media channels, so it’ll be easier for them to stand out. They could take advantage of something their competitors are missing, and leverage influencer marketing on Snapchat.
Final Thoughts
As you can see from the stats highlighted above, Snapchat has undergone considerable growth over the years. It is still beloved by the young. Despite competition from both Instagram and TikTok, it remains the social platform of choice for Generation Z. It has seen notable growth since COVID-19 arrived, particularly in the United States and Europe. And if it continues to adapt to its user's needs, we should expect to see continued growth for the platform. Now you have a clearer idea of where Snapchat stands and how profitable it could be for your business.
