According to the latest report, Snapchat invented the Stories format for sharing disappearing pictures and videos. Now, along with Facebook, the company says the future of social media looks more like TikTok.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in Thursday’s quarterly earnings report to investors that while the company had hoped Stories’ engagement would rise as widespread lockdowns eased and people began to more Picking up from leaving home more but spending less and less time watching friends’ Stories in the app.
Instead, Snapchat users are increasingly flocking to videos on Spotlight, Snapchat’s TikTok competitor, for watching ‘viral’ videos posted by random creators, as well as premium shows from its Discover section.
This is a continuation of the trends we’ve observed throughout the pandemic, with friend stories posting and views per daily active user not returning to pre-pandemic levels,” Spiegel said in a note to investors.
Said in the comments. “While we hope our community will return in time to the Friends Stories behavior we observed before the pandemic, we are focused on innovating our content offerings to better serve our communities today.
While Snap hasn’t detailed specific changes to its content section, it’s easy to imagine the tab looking more like TikTok, with the ability to open full-screen videos from Spotlight creators and drill down into longer Discover shows.
Spiegel stressed that some Spotlight creators already have their own recurring shows in the app, supporting “We use Spotlight as a platform for viewers to discover new creators, topics and communities, and then engage with them more deeply on Discover. exchange”.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta, also this week saw TikTok as a formidable threat. “People have a lot of choices about how they spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very fast,” he said on Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Unlike Snap, its user base is still growing and its revenue growth was also better than expected, with Meta disappointing investors with its earnings report this week, wiping more than $200 billion off its market value in a day — breaking its previous record set in 2018.
So while Snap and Meta’s business performance has been discouraging, it’s worth noting that both see TikTok as a competitor. Convincing new formats, whether Stories or TikTok video feeds, have the potential to quickly divert user attention. Snap invented a format that is now ubiquitous, but now it and Meta are catching up.