Snapchat is the social media platform of choice for younger users but no one else can figure it out, it seems. It wants to fix that.
In an earnings report, CEO Evan Spiegel was pretty straightforward:
"One thing that we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, and our team has been working on responding to this feedback. As a result, we are currently redesigning our application to make it easier to use."
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Making Snapchat more intuitive is likely to send millennials all up in their feelings, though:
"There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don’t yet know how the behavior of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application," Spiegel said. "We’re willing to take that risk for what we believe are substantial long- term benefits to our business."
The platform is preferred by a wide margin by teens, according to bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffray's 34th semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” research report. The survey quizzed 6,100 teens, average age 16, in 44 U.S. states about their favorite brands and shopping habits. Snapchat was the runaway success story, with 47 percent of responders naming it tops. Instagram was a distant No. 2 at 24 percent. Then came Facebook at 9 and Twitter at 7 percents (maybe the 280 character count is supposed to mitigate that?)
Snap says it reaches more than "70 percent of the 13 to 34 year-old population in the U.S., France, the UK, and Australia." But it's eyeing geriatric users ages 34 and up in addition to Android fans and folks elsewhere in the world to boost its growth.
Compounding the company's challenges (especially given the advent of Instagram and Facebook Stories, which look really familiar to Snap fans), no one wants those Snapchat glasses.
"Unfortunately, we misjudged strong early demand for Spectacles and purchased more inventory than we now anticipate being able to sell," Spiegel said.
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