Snapchat is increasing in popularity among adults over the age of 35. Traditionally a network for teens and younger adults, surprisingly the trend hasn’t had a major effect on it’s “cool” factor, and popularity remains high a this level.
According to information made available by CNN Money, the percentage of Snapchat users over the age of 35 has risen from 9% to 14% since 2014. What’s more interesting however, is that the network hasn’t lost any popularity with younger users. In fact, it is proving even more popular than ever with those between the ages of 25 and 34, with users up from 19% two years ago to 38%.
Traditionally when the older generation muscles itself onto a social network younger users become jaded and disengaged. By whatever means, Snapchat have managed to sidestep this issue and are now commanding a very unique cross section of engaged users. However, if the network are serious about realising their app’s potential they need to do way more than reaching out to older users – such as taking a good look at monetizing.
Snapchat’s growing popularity and move to the mainstream
The percentage increases should come as no surprise to users and social media marketers alike. Snapchat has become more mainstream, with more and more high-profile individuals and organisations now having a presence on the app – for example NASA, the White House and CNN.
Moves by the network such as introducing advertising API make clear that they are serious about broadening business’ horizons. With giants such as Facebook to rival, creating a fully-fledged advertising platform should be of crucial importance to them. Alongside development strategies which include both user-base development and monetization, Snapchat need to be serious about taking risks about network features at least where businesses are concerned. This means experimenting with more than just funny filters.
On claims about disengaging younger users, comScore’s VP of Marketing & Insights had this to say:
“Historically, those concerns about losing core users have been overblown… For social media platforms, growth can sometimes be a double-edged sword… They’re expected to grow toward mainstream adoption, but the moment they do, there are questions of whether it will drive out the early adopters.”
