Snapchat “Spectacles” and Cascading Behavior
Snapchat is one of today’s most popular communication channels. Just recently, they released a high-technology pair of glasses called “Spectacles,” which created a huge demand in New York during its release weekend. The glasses are being sold in an interactive vending machine called a Snapbot in a pop-up room located between 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. The line had a wait of more than three hours long, which attests to the popularity and hype surrounding Snapchat’s “Spectacles.”
As of now, Snapchat’s “Spectacles” have not been adopted by most individuals yet. Most people send snapchats through their phones. An item like Snapchat’s glasses could have a potentially high threshold, because not everyone is able to adopt it (too expensive, no friends using it, not useable.) The threshold can be determined by how many of your friends choose not to use the technology divided by your total number of friends. Whether or not your friends value Snapchat glasses can also be determined by how much they are willing to pay, whether or not they are avid Snapchat users, and how many of their friends are using the new technology. The spread of Snapchat glasses throughout the population is explained by information cascades. Cascading behavior principles like relative advantage, complexity, observability, and compatibility with the social institutes of the population can help predict the “Spectacle’s” popularity.
Relative advantage refers to the competitive edge that a new piece of technology has to offer. Snapchat’s glasses would compete with the traditional method of snapchatting through a phone camera. For avid phone users, switching to Snapchat glasses would involve a learning curve that they may not want to get over. However, the glasses would make the Snapchat process more efficient for heavy Snapchat users. Because the glasses are easily observed and recognized by others, more people will be encouraged to purchase them. When people see others with branded items, they tend to believe that the item will be worth purchasing, especially when so many other individuals are using them as explained by information cascades, states, payoffs, and signals. The Snapchat glasses are either an inherently a good or bad product which is represented by the “state.” Physically being able to see others wear the glasses would be considered a high signal, because it would suggest that the product is good, otherwise the wearers would not have made the purchase. Based on these principles, one can get a sense of whether or not the Snapchat “Spectacles” will grow increasingly popular.
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/what-it-s-buy-snap-incs-140-spectacles-new-york-174765