网易100天---50、What's the Future of Snapchat

Since early July, Snap’s stock has failed to trade above its IPO price. Heralded once as the future of social media, Snapchat — the only platform that ignored the advances of Facebook and went out to set a path of its own, seem to be staring down a pretty dismal and dark path.

In Snap’s IPO prospectus, it said its only competitive advantage, for all intents and purposes, was its ability to innovate. Management ignored things like brand and scale, which Facebook used to quickly overtake Snapchat with its stories products in Instagram and WhatsApp.

In his memo last month, Spiegel noted that Snap’s brand and scale do indeed provide certain competitive advantages. As such, it should be working to leverage its brand and build scale.

在这里插入代码片

Since early July, Snap’s stock has failed to trade above its IPO price. Heralded once as the future of social media, Snapchat — the only platform that ignored the advances of Facebook and went out to set a path of its own, seem to be staring down a pretty dismal and dark path.
自7月初以来，Snap的股票未能超过其初次上市的价格。曾经被誉为社交媒体的未来，Snapchat作为唯一一个忽视脸书发展，创建自己的发展道路的平台，似乎正朝着一条相当黯淡和黑暗的道路走过去。

In Snap’s IPO prospectus, it said its only competitive advantage, for all intents and purposes, was its ability to innovate. Management ignored things like brand and scale, which Facebook used to quickly overtake Snapchat with its stories products in Instagram and WhatsApp.
在Snap的IPO招股说明书中，它表示，无论出于何种目的，其唯一的竞争优势在于其创新能力。管理层忽略了品牌和规模等问题，脸书曾经通过Instagram和WhatsApp的故事产品迅速取代Snapchat。

In his memo last month, Spiegel noted that Snap’s brand and scale do indeed provide certain competitive advantages. As such, it should be working to leverage its brand and build scale.
在上个月的备忘录中，斯皮格尔指出Snap的品牌和规模确实提供了一定的竞争优势。因此，它应该努力利用其品牌，建立规模。

在这里插入代码片

What's the Future of Snapchat
温馨提示：正文推送半小时，您将收到精编讲义
Passage 1
Snapchat人气下滑背后的原因
The Problem With Snapchat
From Think Growth & B2C · 423 words · 4 mins
In 2017, Snap reported revenues of $207.9 million, missing its target for the quarter by about $30 million. The market's reaction to this news was reflected by the stock plummeting 20%. 

Since early July, Snap's stock has failed to trade above its IPO price. Heralded once as the future of social media, Snapchat — the only platform that ignored the advances of Facebook and went out to set a path of its own, seem to be staring down a pretty dismal and dark path. 

Where did Snap go wrong? What could they have done better? 

image

Snapchat went through a redesign early this year, and nearly everyone who uses the app hated it. That's right, the way the app looked and how it functioned were important factors in the current decline of the platform. Even Kylie Jenner went on Twitter to complain. 

Some users thought it was ugly, and that the looks of the redesign simply turned them off. The basic problem, it seems, is the change of the interface. Stories from friends and brands are differentiated, for example. The two different types of content are now wholly separate. 

In May, Snapchat fiddled with things again, and this was obviously in response to the concerns raised by users. The redesign was "re-designed", and a new layout hit the platform. It seemed like a genuine attempt to put things right. 

Back when they made that big change, they lost users almost immediately. The brand seems to think that adding more features can rescue the business and give it some kind of position in the social media industry. But when you fiddle around with something that millions love, you're going to take some heat. 

Why We Think Snapchat is Still Worth It

image

There's a simple reason why Snapchat should still be part of a brand's social strategy. The platform is famous for being ephemeral, a "blink and you miss it" kind of deal. This is why it has always proved popular with the younger generation, who have short attention spans, and are essentially the first generation to grow up with the Internet. 

When Snapchat "listened" and re-did the platform again in May, this showed one simple belief to be true. People generally like Snapchat and they like using it a lot, so when it changes, they want it to go back to where it was. 

The users are loyal fans, and they care about the platform. Snapchat needs to realise this and start to do things the way fans like them. If Snapchat ignores complaints for much longer, it will be truly sad.
Passage 2
未来一年Snap公司的当务之急是什么？
Snap's Top Priority in 2019
From The Motly Fool · 268 words · 3 mins
Snap's 2018 hasn't been great so far. CEO Evan Spiegel admitted to certain missteps in launching the redesigned app at the beginning of the year in a memo to employees that was sent at the end of September. Spiegel noted the biggest problem with the redesign was that it made it harder to communicate, moving away from the company's core product focus of being "the fastest way to communicate." 

Communication is key to keeping users

image

"We have learned over the past two years that we can grow our user base by providing the fastest way to communicate without providing Stories and other value-add features, but we can't directly grow our community by providing Stories without communication." Spiegel wrote in the memo. 

Spiegel believes that making it faster and easier to communicate will enable growth in developing markets and other regions where it's previously failed to attract attention. 

Building a moat

In Snap's IPO prospectus, it said its only competitive advantage, for all intents and purposes, was its ability to innovate. Management ignored things like brand and scale, which Facebook used to quickly overtake Snapchat with its stories products in Instagram and WhatsApp. 

image

In his memo last month, Spiegel noted that Snap's brand and scale do indeed provide certain competitive advantages. As such, it should be working to leverage its brand and build scale. 

If Snap can grow Snapchat's user base like it had been doing before going public, it could benefit from the network effect that enabled Facebook to grow its stories products to over 1 billion users. That network effect would protect Snap from seeing what happened with its Stories happen with its other product innovations.