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Snapchat and Network Effects

Snapchat is an app that allows users to send pictures or videos for a specified amount of seconds. Short captions can be added, and the pictures can also be drawn on with an assorted color “pen” feature. Users have usernames and phone numbers associated with their accounts, and people can search for friends using the phone numbers from their contact book. Snapchat is a form of fast communication in which messages are expressed visually rather than textually. It has become very popular, and the number of active monthly users has reached 100 million. There are also about 400 million snaps sent per day, meaning that this has grown into a very widely used for of digital communication.

Snapchat heavily embodies the idea of Network effects. The impressive statistics that seem to stem from the fact that the more users there are, the more people there are who want to use the product. In order for Snapchat to get as successful as it was, people needed to expect that a certain number of other friends would use the app. Without multiple friends to send “snaps” to, the app is not fun or useful and there is no point in installing it. When the app first came out in 2011, there was likely a “tipping point” of expected users that needed to be hit in order for people to want to download the app. Due to the great success three years later, that point was clearly passed. Demand seems to keep growing, so it will be interesting to see the equilibrium that the demand will likely hit if this follows the typical model of network effects.

http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/snapchat-statistics/

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