Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on the day's biggest business stories
Subscribe to Axios Closer for insights into the day’s business news and trends and why they matter
Stay on top of the latest market trends
Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.
Sports news worthy of your time
Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.
Tech news worthy of your time
Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.
Get the inside stories
Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Sign up for Axios NW Arkansas
Stay up-to-date on the most important and interesting stories affecting NW Arkansas, authored by local reporters
The Snapchat app. Photo: Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Daily Beast's Taylor Lorenz got her hands on five months of confidential data from Snapchat, despite the company's secretive culture. Her analysis of daily active users revealed that Snapchat's Discover and Maps aren't doing as well as the company's other features, and have yet to gain widespread adoption among the app's user base.
Our thought bubble: Snapchat's format and offerings are still relatively new and evolving, so it will take some time before widespread adoption — if that ever happens. The platform will have to seriously innovate and invest (hence their plans for a large-scale redesign) if they want those numbers to go up, but they know that, which is why stories like these probably don't spook them.
By the numbers, as detailed in the Daily Beast:
- Daily active users (DAUs): 178 million.
- Snap Maps, which launched in June 2017: An average of 19 million users (11% of the app's total user base) checked Snap Maps daily during the month of Sept. Lorenz describes the numbers as "relatively weak," though they seem normal for such a new feature.
- Discover: An average of 20% of Snapchat users consumed content from a Discover Edition daily. Lorenz says consumption peaked on July 24, 2017, at 38 million DAUs, or roughly 21% of the broader user base.
- Personal snaps vs. stories: In August, users were 64% more likely to send a snap to a friend than post to Stories. They also sent an average of 34 chat messages per day.
- Snap's stock price has declined from a high of $27.09 shortly after going public to $13.92 per share on Jan. 8.
Key takeaways:
- Based on the numbers, users see Snapchat as more of a traditional chat app than they do a tool for meeting up with friends, writes Lorenz.
- The app's strength is in personal communication, as seen through the large volume of photos, videos and text sent per day.
- Concerns with rollout of the app's new design: That Discover and Maps usage will decline sharply and "crater Snapchat's ad revenue," Lorenz writes.