Here's a big number for you: 10 billion.
That's how many videos are viewed on Snapchat every day, as first reported by Bloomberg on Thursday. Snapchat confirmed the number to Tech Insider. That's up from 8 billion videos viewed per day just two months ago.
What's perhaps most impressive about Snapchat is that over a third of its more than 100 million daily active users create "stories" in the app, which are stitched together collections of photos and videos others can view. All of these stories expire 24 hours after they're created.
Meanwhile, multiple outlets have reported that Facebook is battling a decline in "original sharing." Facebook doesn't reveal the mix of content that people share on its social network, but the reports say that sharing from personal accounts — think: status updates, photos, notes, etc. — is down.
Let me be clear: Facebook is going to be completely fine.
It added 60 million new people to its service (over half of Snapchat's entire user base) just last quarter, and has 1.65 billion people using it at least once a month. Facebook is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, has ambitions to become an internet provider, currently possesses an all-star bench of employee talent, and just hired the former head of DARPA.
But make no mistake, Snapchat is Facebook's biggest threat right now. Here's why:
- Snapchat is growing rapidly and attracting a more diverse user base. In just under a year, Snapchat's video views have soared from 2 billion to 10 billion per day. At this time last year Facebook was averaging 4 billion views per day and last reported 8 billion views per day in November (We've asked Facebook for more recent numbers). Both social networks are growing, but Snapchat has caught up fast. Besides views, Snapchat's user base is diversifying. Its vice president of content, Nick Bell, recently dispelled the misconception that the app is used by only young teens — 50% of new users are over 25-years-old.
- Snapchat has two inherent qualities Facebook desperately wants: it's fun to use and sparks creativity. Even if you don't use Snapchat, you've probably seen the rainbow vomit selfies and ridiculous filters if offers. Facebook wants to be a tool for creative expressionlike Snapchat. It's attempted to make a disappearing photo sharing app like Snapchat multiple times to no avail. It's reportedly working on another one right now. Shortly after Snapchat bought an app that made goofy 3D selfie lenses (which now powers the feature in Snapchat), Facebook bought a nearly identical app called MSQRD.
- People are spending a lot of time in Snapchat every day, which cuts into the time they could be spending on Facebook. Snapchat users spend on average 25-30 minutes in the app every day. That's not as high as the more than 50 minutes people spend across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, but it's meaningful. There's a finite amount of time in a given day, and the more time people spend in Snapchat, the less time they have to spend on Facebook.
Snapchat's meteoric rise cuts to the heart of what Facebook cares about most: sharing.
Facebook became the behemoth it is today because we willingly shared our interests, opinions, and lives with it every day. People may use Facebook more than ever to read the news, plan events, and watch video, but Snapchat capitalizes on the creative, expressive feeling Facebook lacks.
Back in 2013, Mark Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat for around $3 billion in cash. Snapchat didn't sell, and that's got to sting for Zuckerberg every time Snapchat moves ahead of Facebook on the App Store's charts.
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