Snapchat has announced a surprise surge in user numbers, with 750 million people now using the social media and instant messaging service every month.
While Snapchat has yet to experience the meteoric success of rival TikTok and has seen less news coverage than new pretenders like BeReal recently, it continues to attract a captive, global audience.
At its recent Investor Day, the company said monthly active user (MAU) numbers have jumped from 600 million in March 2022 to 750 million.
An increase of 150 million in less than a year is rather impressive and puts the app clear of competitors such as Pinterest, which has around 450 million monthly users.
Driving Snapchat’s recent spike is the “rest of the world” audience – user numbers outside of North America and Europe have surged 80% in the last two years.
India is a notable hotspot, where 147 million people regularly log on to the platform as mobile adoption continues to rise in Asian regions.
The trend bodes well for Snapchat, though the picture could be rosier in North America, where user growth is flat.
CEO Evan Spiegel said in a speech that it’s now making the task of attracting and retaining new consumer and business users a top priority.
Snapchat believes it can hit a milestone of one billion MAUs by 2025 or 2026.
Developing markets could be a key growth area for Snapchat, but it will also want to grow in North America, which currently has 150 million users.
It also needs to drive revenue after seeing a recent decline in its digital advertising business.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, revealed that it will now focus on direct response (DR) advertising to boost its top line.
