Snapchat Expands And Kills The Competition

Ansa seemed to be a possible solution to secure and secrete private messaging and we defined it as a possible Snapchat Killer. However what Ansa is trying to deliver was launched by the Snapchat team a few days ago, on the 1st of May. By simply swiping right on a friend’s name, you can start chatting with him and sharing whatever you want. It can be a picture, a message or even a video. Yes, if you are both online, you can video chat with a simple tap.

After you have left the chat screen, the message visualised by both you and your friend will be cleared, once for all. In a single release, Snapchat has been able to tackle several different applications that are aiming at those millions of people who are using smartphones. The aim is not to build another feature, but to address that market that uses SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and even Skype.

Since Snapchat gets the contacts from your address book, in the same way as the other services do, there is no complexity added to the app. The only thing we have to see and understand, after this release, is if users will be more willing to use a single app to send messages, snaps and video chat. In this way, Snapchat has expanded its main core, which was pictures. Are users willing to use something that was supposed to be just for pictures in the same way they use Whatsapp?

No, I don’t think so. Further Snapchat’s market penetration is not as dense as Whatsapp, where I can also find my 74 years old grand mum. On the other hand, Snapchat has got a user base that goes from 18-25 years old, which means that, yes, the chat will be used, but it’ll never tackle what Whatsapp, Telegram or WeChat are trying to do.

Why did they add more features? It might be directly connected to the fact that they are scared to lose momentum and want to keep their user base as engaged as possible. There is no reason behind adding a chat to a service that has gained its success for not implementing a text chat, but rather a pictures one. The only possible explanation is the willingness to directly tackle the services we have listed before, but it’ll never take place in mature generations of people, that’s why it’s more about adding something new, than winning over a market.

If Snapchat wanted to get acquired by Facebook, it wouldn’t have introduced a chat to their product and Facebook wouldn’t have allowed that. This update makes us think that this company wants to stay as independent as possible from tech giants. There might be another offer from Google and even Facebook in the next months, but we are pretty sure the answer will be a “No” to Facebook. Google? This company owns the sms market with Google Hangouts, the app that every Android device has as default, but has never tackled the messaging market, the one that is destroying SMS.

That’s why Evan Spiegel, if he wants to sell, might consider the first company, instead of the second. Another big challenge that Spiegel needs to face, if he wants to be as independent as possible, is making money. The company has raised £123M in funding, which is an extraordinary case, given the nature of the product; so at some point, the investors will knock at his door, asking for a fat cheque or an acquisition.