TechScape: How Snapchat is saving itself

Why are some social networks a success, while others struggle to stay alive? How did Facebook and Twitter go from being peers in the 2000s to barely even rivals 15 years on? Everyone seems to use social media, so everyone seems to have an answer to this sort of question.

But social networks are icebergs: most of what matters lies below the surface. Simply building a good user experience is table stakes for playing in the space. To actually succeed, though, you also need to master the parts most people don't see.

Snapchat won't thank me for calling the app "social media"; it's in the middle of an international ad campaign encouraging people to use "less social media, more Snapchat", repositioning itself as a messaging service first and foremost, rather than the "the social media popularity contest" of its competitors. It fits with the general vibe the company has been promoting, as, effectively, the largest independent American consumer app.

Snapchat is also one of the best examples of why focusing on just what users can see will lead a company to missing what makes a service thrive. After a pandemic-era boom, the company was hit hard by jitters in the tech sector, its stock price falling from a high of $83 in October 2021 to less than one-tenth of that, just $8.15, in just a year. It was a gruelling sign that the company needed to rethink things and, in the years since, Snap has worked hard to build products for advertisers, influencers, developers and marketers that can stand toe-to-toe with Facebook and Instagram.

Last week, I spent some time with Ronan Harris, the company's EMEA president, to discuss those changes. I wanted to know what a company the size of Snap needs to focus on - and what mistakes people make when they focus only on the public-facing bits.

"Our users tell us that Snapchat is the happiest place that they spend time online," Harris says. "I'd love to say it's because we've got a magically happy technology. But I think it's actually because it's where they're spending [the] most online time with people they care about, and in a way that feels authentic and real."

That sense of connection fundamentally changes the nature of Snapchat's business. It's easy to inject adverts into an algorithmically curated, endless feed, but somewhat harder to do the same when users are sending messages back and forth. And so Snapchat has to work harder just to stand still.