All the kids are doing it

Reaching 90% of the market under 24, Snap streaks feel like a relic of high school. They're actually doing better than ever.

Reaching 90% of the market under 24, Snap streaks feel like a relic of high school. They're actually doing better than ever.

There was a time when Snapchat looked to be doomed.

Instagram took the unique disappearing story feature and shared it with its Meta siblings, Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook.

Then, Meta took the other key attraction of Snapchat, 3D filters, and carried them over to Instagram.

Snapchat had not even turned a profit yet, and its biggest competitors were taking on its most distinctive features.

When The Australian spoke to Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel this week, what was once touted as the 'sexting app' had come a long way:

• Snapchat is rolling out 'director mode' editing tools for a generation of creators
• Their active users are increasing faster than Facebook's (*sizzle sound* Mark Zuckerberg unsuccessfully tried to buy Snapchat two years after its 2011 launch as the app 'Picaboo')
• FINALLY - Snapchat is profitable, as was revealed to investors in its fourth-quarter earnings release earlier this year

Snapchat's daily active users are up while Facebook's are in decline. 

Based on their latest earnings report, the social media app has 18% more daily users than they did this time last year, beating analysts’ predictions. That’s up 52 million to 332 million - and 7 million of them are Aussies.

The earnings report boasts that they meet 90% of 13-24-year-olds in Australia.

Here is what Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel had to say to The Australian about where the company is heading and how they are evolving with their young audience.

Evan Spiegel: Miranda Kerr's husband, college drop-out. Picture: Snapchat.

CEO: How Snapchat stays relevant

Just here for a good time

It is ranked as the #1 happiest platform in the world, according to Spiegel. 

"To make people feel comfortable expressing themselves, and being creative, we have to create an environment where they can do that and they don't feel like they're going to be judged."

"That's why we don't have public likes and comments on stories. That's why we embraced ephemerality. That's why we made it a platform where ... there's no public friends list.

"Everything we've really built at Snapchat has been architected to make people feel comfortable expressing themselves and to make it a fun service to use together with your friends ... we've tried to have a bit of playful irreverence," he said. 

We'll give it a go

"Young people are very open to innovation and trying new things ... (and) are curious about new technology," Spiegel said.

"Young people want to try the new products we create, whether it's Spotlight (a collection of entertaining videos), our new augmented reality, or the Snapchat map. That's always been something that's been inspiring to us.

It reminds me of how I got excited about technology, always playing around with whatever new piece of software or computing tools were coming out.

"I think it is really important to the future of our business."

It's giving high school. Picture: The Odyssey.

Big investments in Augmented Reality (AR)

AR (rather than Virtual Reality) is the next major shift in computing, according to Snapchat, and they are betting on it hard. 

At the Annual Partner Summit, Snapchat announced an extension of their shopping features such as "Dress Up", which they hope will become a virtual shopping centre.

Snapchat already has lenses that let you try on Gucci shoes or Louis Vuitton glasses.

"I'd say our fundamental thesis (around AR) is that people love the real world ... And we think people are going to want to continue to ground their lives, and the computing they use, in the world around them."

American Eagle "Try On" lens.

Puma AR shopping lens.

This also applies to Snapchat's parent company - Snap's - physical Spectacles, which overlay computing onto the real world, and users "walk around and see what's around them and use their hands to interact".

The Spectacles only have about 30 minutes of battery life and the prototypes are only in the hands of few creators around the world, but Spiegel says the next iteration is in development.

"To have AR experiences together with their friends ... that's really different than this feeling of replacing the world, or being cut off from reality and using things like VR (Virtual Reality).

"The AR bet for us is really a bet on people loving reality and wanting to enhance that with computing instead of replacing it," Spiegel said.