
What is Snapchat, now that Story sharing has stopped growing? - LearnerHerzog
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/09/the-ever-ending-story/
======
dang
This article is piggy-backing on the original source discussed yesterday here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16107183](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16107183).

Submitters: it'd be good if you'd take a minute to do some due diligence on
articles like this before submitting them. The HN guidelines ask for original
sources
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)),
and this is the opposite.

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wand3r
> What is snapchat?

The chief product architects of Instagram

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adjkant
What it's always been - a messaging app with pictures / videos / fun tools
like filters, lenses, bitmojis (honestly my favorite and most useful part of
Snapchat) that has stories for when I want to share with everyone. I feel like
this is media analysis grasping at straws, just like they did when Facebook
made a huge deal out of copying stories and having more users. Fast forward a
year, Snapchat is still here and as far as we know just as used by their user
base, though growing less than before.

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everdev
What it always was: something in-between Facebook and Instagram. It's not the
giant killer the founders thought it would be or the bust that others
expected. Just a multi-billion dollar content (not camera) company with tons
of young eyeballs.

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OoTheNigerian
I have a feeling that if SnapChat allows sharing Od urls outside of the app
(profile, stories etc) it will experience growth.

No idea why it isn't that way today.

~~~
adjkant
There's nothing on a Snapchat profile really to share, as it should be.
Stories are for friends, not public consumption. What content is actually
needed to be seen outside of Snapchat?

~~~
OoTheNigerian
It should be left to people to decide how public they want their stories to
be.

~~~
adjkant
If you want to post at a more public and linkable level, there are many other
services and nothing stopping you. That feature would do nothing for the
current users of Snapchat and would really be against the purpose and spirit
of the format. As mentioned, they would lose millions of users over it I am
sure.

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tw1010
I just have this feeling a lot of anti-snapchat news or comments are either
biased as a function of investing in competing companies, or is a consequence
of having their head way too far up the adult, linkedin, world to know what is
really going on with the people that use these apps. The fact is that the vast
vast vast majority of young people look way down on facebook, and only use it
because of network effect hooks (which have proven to be surprisingly robust,
but I don't have much faith in long-term), whereas snapchat is totally
considered cool and fun to use. This sign should be far more than enough, to
anyone who knows the history of these services, to know how all this will turn
out long-term.

~~~
hbosch
Instagram has caught way up to Snapchat with kids IMO. Millennials aren't
looking down on Instagram the same way they look down on Facebook, although I
do see the potential as long as Instagram keeps messing around with the
timelines and practicing the crude art of withholding likes and comments from
users in order to get them to check back more often.

One thing I really, _really_ like about what Snapchat is trying to do is go
against what makes them money in order to make their user base happier.
Separating Friends and Discover is bad for cash but good for customer
experience. If they can keep my friends' snaps and advertisers' snaps entirely
separated I would happily start snapping more.

As it is, I can't watch my friends' stories on either app without being forced
through ads and I find it incredibly annoying.

The answer to this article's headline is, hopefully, "a fun place where I can
share photos with my friends and not see an ad."

~~~
oneweekwonder
> ... with kids IMO.

> Millennials aren't looking down ...

pst, youngest millennials 18 now days[0], oldest 37.

So some of them get upset to get lumped with generation z[1] as kids. Other
old enough to not care anymore.

btw, get of my lawn.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials)
[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z)

------
bittermang
Snapchat is and always has been a way for me to connect with my drug dealer,
and trade nudes with open minded individuals in my social circles.

Because of this, I have been utterly fascinated by Snapchat's continued
existence, partnerships with major media brands, and being publicly traded. It
boggles my mind that the app I use to buy weed and see titty has such a large
footprint. It always feels like reality will catch up to Snapchat, and the
ecosystem will come crashing down once everyone else realizes the Emperor is
not wearing any clothes, and he's using the app to send pictures of his
unclothed behind to everyone else.

~~~
jdtang13
You really think that the many people who use Snapchat are all using it
exactly the way you do?

~~~
bittermang
Do you? Does anyone?

We sit on high and talk about the kids and perceptions of cool. But the
elephant in the room is never discussing what people are actually doing with
the app.

And to me, that is where the divide comes in. There is the Snapchat that is
presented, the stories tab, and Snapcode links in Pepsi commercials. Then
there is the Snapchat that is, how people are actually using it out in the
wild.

~~~
jdtang13
I think it's much better to just ask a few 14-19 year olds how they use
Snapchat, and what kind of messages they like to send and receive, rather than
idly speculate.

~~~
ABCLAW
And you think they'd honestly and with a straight face tell you what they're
using ephemeral pictures and self destructing messages for?

Lets be real here.

~~~
jdtang13
Sounds like you've already come to your own conclusion, then. How can you
collect data when you've already named the result of the experiment?

