Move over, Facebook. There’s a (relatively) new kid really catching up to you on the block. According to new reports from Re/code, Snapchat’s meteoric growth is now rivaling that of far more established social media sites, racking up an impressive 8 billion video views a day. For reference, that’s the same number of video views that Facebook claims. This figure is made even more impressive given its timeline — in early January, Snapchat was thrilled to announce that it logged seven billion video views every day. And not even two months later, that number has gone up by a whole billion.
The figure is based upon “a source who heard Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel speak with bankers and analysts Monday afternoon at Morgan Stanley’s Tech, Media & Telecom conference in San Francisco,” Re/code reports, and has quickly been picked up by numerous news outlets. Just one year ago, Spiegel reported five times fewer, driving home the point that Snapchat is on a roll of epic proportions.
And while Snapchat’s user base is nowhere near as large as Facebook’s (which recently hit its 1 billion users a day milestone), the 100 million Snapchat users are clearly a dedicated crowd. Spiegel claims that this (comparatively) small but mighty mob spends around 25 to 30 minutes each and every day on the app, so it’s no wonder that they’re watching so many videos.
41 percent of Snapchat’s users fall within the 18 to 34-year-old American demographic, and given the younger generation’s penchant for never leaving their phones unattended, it would appear that Snapchat’s growth trajectory is strong, to say the least. The app’s most recent valuation was an impressive $16 billion, and the five-year-old company recently snagged the number five position on Fortune’s list of “unicorn” tech startups.
With metrics like these, Snapchat’s bid at a successful initial public offering is looking all the more appealing. So keep on watching those Snaps, friends. Maybe you can cash in on it later.
