Snapchat (The Teen Social Network), Google and VR, Amazon’s Head Fake

Snapchat – The Teen Social Network

Buzzfeed wrote an excellent article on Snapchat where Ben Rosen interviewed his sister about her Snapchat usage. It is not only entertaining but also very insightful. I recommend you read it. A few things stood out to me.

The first is how Snapchat is basically a social network for teenagers. I’ve shared this data before, but our research suggests the vast majority of Snapchat’s ~200 million active users are under the age of 25. A key point here is I track this by quarter and don’t see older users jumping on the platform in any statistically significant percentage. One could also argue, if Snapchat succeeded in luring older consumers to the platform, young people would just up and leave, thus potentially hurting the business.

The second was a stat shared Rosen where his sister used over 60GB of data in a month. Over a decade ago when I was studying Millenials, I brought a high schooler into our research group to a panel hosted by Nokia. My talk was on millennials’ usage of smartphones. She was a Blackberry user and the most prolific texter I’ve ever seen. She averaged 6,000 texts a month. During my on-stage interview with her, when she stated this stat to a room full of old white men, there was a gasp through the crowd. This stat, and the shock that comes with the GB usage of Rosen’s sister, reminded me of the texting story from a decade earlier. Where we were once in shock and awe at how many texts teens send per day/per month, we are now in shock and awe at how much data they consume. 60GB per month of data usage is the new 6,000 texts in a month.

Google and VR

The Virtual Reality Platform wars are heating up! The Financial Times broke a story about Google looking to release a VR headset that will work with a range of Android-based smartphones. Certainly only ones with enough processing power but it seems Google is looking to bring broader VR support to Android itself.

On paper this makes sense. Android runs on over 70% of all smartphones in use so bringing VR capabilities to Android certainly could help the category. However, can Android develop a robust ecosystem around it? Logic says yes, but given they are competing with Facebook and the Oculus VR platform which already has significant developer and content momentum, and with Facebook having more users than Google, it isn’t wise to write off Facebook and Oculus. In early days it is hard to call but interesting times ahead.

Of course, Apple is still waiting to get into the game and, given what we know about Apple’s ecosystem, it stands to reason they will also be a force to be reckoned with in VR.

Amazon’s Head Fake

It appears Amazon is up to more than they led on during their investor call. During the call, it seemed it was made clear they were not trying to build a system to replace UPS and FedEx but to supplement them. Bloomberg got a scoop on Amazon’s plans and it seems their ambitions are larger than just supplementing their partners.

This move makes sense when you consider the reason Amazon wants physical stores, tons of warehouses, and shipping infrastucture is so they can capture more share of the wallet from both buyers and sellers. The report also includes this gem:

If the logistics business takes hold, financial services could follow, with Amazon giving loans to merchants, processing international payments and consulting its network of sellers on customs and tax matters.

Financial services, in the form of lending to the global commerce economy, is going to be a huge business. As with any new industry, owning the canals, tracks, roads, pipes, all the infrastructure, is always the place to bet big. As the world moves away from retail to online commerce, Amazon is making moves to own as many parts of the infrastructure for the new world as possible.

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Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin is a Principal Analyst and the head of primary research at Creative Strategies, Inc - An industry analysis, market intelligence and research firm located in Silicon Valley. His primary focus is consumer technology and market trend research and he is responsible for studying over 30 countries. Full Bio

2 thoughts on “Snapchat (The Teen Social Network), Google and VR, Amazon’s Head Fake”

  1. Thanks for sharing that BuzzFeed article. Wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. And in full agreement, it’s great. As someone who decided to pivot and change careers and is now back in school, I’ve experienced this whole “what the hell is Snapchat and how do I use it” feeling since last summer. Didn’t know videos are lame. Granted, for teens it may be, but the people I follow use videos a lot.

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