Purpose Unicorn companies, such as Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb, significantly impact our economies. This happens although they had a dramatic initial start – at least in terms of financial performance – that would have let any other “conventional” business close. In other words, Unicorns challenge the start-ups’ problems traditionally associated with early failure (liability of newness). This paper aims to understand what helps Unicorn firms initially survive despite huge losses. Design/methodology/approach By adopting a behavioral lens, this historical case study article focuses on key strategic decisions regarding the famous social media Unicorn Snapchat from 2011 to 2022. The case combines secondary data and a thematic analysis of Snapchat founders’ and investors’ interviews/comments to identify the behavioral antecedents leading to Snapchat’s honeymoon. Findings Snapchat network effect triggered cognitive biases of Snapchat founders’ and investors’ decisions, leading them to provide initial assets (i.e. beliefs/goodwill, trust, financial resources and psychological commitment) to the nascent Unicorn. Therefore, the network effect and biases resulted in significant antecedents for Snapchat’s honeymoon. Originality/value The authors propose a general, theoretical framework advancing the possible impact of biases on Unicorns’ initial survival. The authors argue that some biases of the Unicorns’ founders and investors can positively support a honeymoon period for these new ventures. This is one of the first case studies drawing on a behavioral approach in general and on biases in particular to investigate the liability of newness in the Unicorns’ context.
This paper explores how the photo and video-sharing app Snapchat mediates memory and intimacy, using focus group data with 18-year-olds. We use Bergson’s ideas about duration and Deleuze and Guattari’s theories of affect and assemblages to think about how the digital affordances of ‘disappearing’ Snapchat technology reshape memory and intimacy in youth sexual and relationship cultures. Our findings illustrate that Snapchat offers a temporal fastness and ephemerality – but also forms of fixity through the screenshotting of ‘disappearing’ snaps. Because judgement from peers cannot take place publicly within the app, offline discussion of Snapchat activity gains significant traction, making interview accounts of Snapchat use highly relevant. Our analysis of discussions of ‘Snapchat memory’ explores the gendered aspects of performative ‘showing off’ and sexual scrutiny, considering what happens when snaps do not disappear and how Snap exchanges can be used as relationship currency; for instance exploring how some participant’s challenged Snapchat related slut shaming through their uses of humour. Overall we show how Snapchat is mediating youth intimacy, highlighting the reconditioning that occurs between and across the digital world of Snapchat and the physical world of its youth users – evidence of the blurring of online and offline experiences that disrupts digital dualisms.
Recent news in the media has suggested that younger people are using popular social media such as Facebook less and are quickly adopting newer media, such as the self-destructing app Snapchat. Snapchat is unique in that it erases messages several seconds after they have been sent, affording its users a higher level of privacy. Yet, little research exists on Snapchat use in general, let alone its broader psychological implications. This article offers a preliminary comparison of Snapchat and Facebook use and psychological effects on romantic jealousy. General motives for using Snapchat and Facebook are examined, as well as the nature of the content that Snapchat users most frequently share. Further, because of the differences in privacy and persistence of information, potential psychological effects in the domain of romantic jealousy are also examined, which has been widely studied on Facebook in the last few years. Findings show that the main difference in motives were that Snapchat was used more for flirting and finding new love interests, whereas Facebook was still the main social networking site used for keeping in touch with friends. Further, when presenting users with a series of potentially jealousy provoking scenarios, Snapchat elicited higher levels of jealousy than did Facebook. These findings are explained based on an affordance approach.
Ephemeral social media, platforms that display shared content for a limited period of time, have become a prominent component of the social ecosystem. We draw on experience sampling data collected over two weeks (Study 1; N = 154) and in-depth interview data from a subsample of participants (Study 2; N = 28) to understand college students’ social and emotional experiences on Snapchat, a popular ephemeral mobile platform. Our quantitative data demonstrated that Snapchat interactions were perceived as more enjoyable – and associated with more positive mood – than other communication technologies. However, Snapchat interactions were also associated with lower social support than other channels. Our qualitative data highlighted aspects of Snapchat use that may facilitate positive affect (but not social support), including sharing mundane experiences with close ties and reduced self-presentational concerns. In addition, users compared Snapchat to face-to-face interaction and reported attending to Snapchat content more closely than archived content, which may contribute to increased emotional rewards. Overall, participants did not see the application as a platform for sharing or viewing photos; rather, Snapchat was viewed as a lightweight channel for sharing spontaneous experiences with trusted ties. Together, these studies contribute to our evolving understanding of ephemeral social media and their role in social relationships.
In recent years, Snapchat has gradually gained popularity among young consumers, and more and more companies have included Snapchat into their mobile marketing campaigns. However, only little academic research has been conducted to explore Snapchat marketing. In order to fill the research gap, the current study is designed to investigate how perceived media characteristics of Snapchat influence college-aged young consumers' receptivity of Snapchat advertising by using a mixed method research design. The qualitative study revealed that according to college-aged consumers, Snapchat is the most intimate, casual, and dynamic medium which provides them with information, socialisation, and entertainment. The quantitative study uncovered that the perceived intimacy and casualty have a positive impact on young consumers' attitude toward Snapchat; only the perceived intimacy has a positive impact on purchase intention towards brands advertised on Snapchat. Theoretical and practical implications were offered.
The proliferation of social media platforms has provided researchers with ample opportunities to explore the implications of these platforms' positive and negative use. Focusing on the latter, the literature has highlighted the severe implications of the fear of missing out (FoMO) and its associations with negative aspects of social media use, such as the problematic use of social media, phubbing, and reduced well-being. Our study investigates the association between FoMO and social media fatigue, which is mediated by information and communication overload, online subjective well-being (OSWB), and compulsive social media use (compulsive use). The proposed model is grounded strongly in self-determination theory (SDT), the theory of compensatory Internet use (TCIU), and the limited-capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP). We tested the model using two independent cross-sectional data sets collected from Instagram and Snapchat users. Our findings, which align with TCIU, suggest that FoMO is positively associated with information overload and compulsive use for both Instagram and Snapchat users. For Snapchat users, FoMO is also positively associated with communication overload and OSWB. The overuse aspect associated with TCIU is explained in the strong positive associations between FoMO and compulsive use among both Instagram and Snapchat users. In addition, OSWB, information overload, and compulsive use are positively associated with social media fatigue for users of both platforms. In contrast, communication overload significantly predicts social media fatigue for Snapchat users only.
BACKGROUND: The use of paid social media advertising for targeted study recruitment is an effective strategy in health research and evaluation, specifically to reach diverse youth participants. Although the literature adequately describes the utility of Facebook in recruitment, limited information exists for social media platforms that are more popular with youth, specifically Instagram and Snapchat. OBJECTIVE: This paper outlines a paid advertising approach using Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook to evaluate a statewide youth marijuana prevention campaign. The objective of this study was to compare recruitment metrics across Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook for two surveys documenting youth knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to retail marijuana in Colorado post legalization. In addition, the study assessed the feasibility of using Instagram and Snapchat as effective additions to Facebook for youth study recruitment. METHODS: A social media recruitment strategy was used to conduct two cross-sectional surveys of youth, aged 13 to 20 years, in Colorado. Geographically targeted ads across 3 social media platforms encouraged the completion of a Web-based self-administered survey. Ad Words and Snap Ads were used to deploy and manage advertising campaigns, including ad design, placement, and analysis. Ad costs and recruitment metrics (ie, impressions, link clicks, and conversion rates) were calculated across the three social media platforms. RESULTS: Over two 1-month periods, 763,613 youth were reached (ie, impressions), 6089 of them clicked survey links (ie, clicks), and 828 eligible youth completed surveys about knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to retail marijuana. Instagram converted 36.13% (803/2222) of impressions to clicks (ie, conversion rate) in the first survey and 0.87% (864/98982) in the second survey. Snapchat generated the most impressions and link clicks, but it did so with the lowest conversion rate for both surveys, with a 1.40% (1600/114,200) conversion rate in the first survey and a 0.36% (1818/504700) conversion rate in the second survey. Facebook maintained a consistent conversion rate of roughly 2% across both surveys, despite reductions in budget for the second survey. The cost-per-click ranged between US $0.25 and $0.37 across the three platforms, with Snapchat as both the most cost-effective platform in the first survey and the most expensive platform in the second survey. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment and enrollment outcomes indicate the use of Instagram and Snapchat, in addition to Facebook, may be a modern, useful, and cost-effective approach to reach youth with surveys on sensitive health topics. As the use of Facebook declines among youth, the use of more popular social media platforms can augment study recruitment for health research and evaluation efforts.
Tourism research is increasingly turning to online social media conversations as a data source, but seldom assigning space in research outputs for ethical appraisals or reflexive accounts of data collection. Many tourism researchers download conversations after they have occurred, but presence is central to gaining rich insights through netnographic research. We contribute to and disrupt online tourism research by critiquing, extending, and adapting existing methods to Snapchat, which in itself disrupts possibilities for online data collection. Hanging out with tourist Snapchatters highlights how privacy concerns are a primary motive to post on Snapchat. Snapchat is understood by our participants as more private than other social media sites due to the ephemerality of content and the notification of screenshots (when others save your snap). It is no coincidence that these same functionalities render established methods of digital tourism research difficult in the case of Snapchat. Snapchat users also problematise the notion of social media as public space, as they utilise the platforms for much more than communicating with the world. Snapchatters create, augment, and store memories.
The current research explores differences between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in terms of intensity of use, time spent daily on the platform, and use motivations. The study applies the uses and gratifications (U&G) approach to contrast the four platforms. A cross-sectional survey of college students ( N = 396) asked participants to indicate the intensity of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat as well as nine different use motivations. Findings show that participants spent the most time daily on Instagram, followed by Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter, respectively. They also indicated the highest use intensity for Snapchat and Instagram (nearly equally), followed by Facebook and Twitter, respectively. With regard to use motivations, Snapchat takes the lead in five of the nine motivations. Findings are discussed in relation to the U&G approach and uniqueness of different social media and social networking sites (SNSs).
In this article, we examine the particular ways that place is configured in and through mobile social media platform Snapchat, and how Snapchat is designed and conceptualized in such a way as to encourage digital placemaking. The position we take in this article is that place is not a thing that is merely recorded through this platform. Rather, place is something that is continually enacted, negotiated and renegotiated across multiple levels of media engagement. In developing this position, we first review the previous research on Snapchat that relates to placemaking. Then, we examine placemaking through two primary lens: Snapchat’s design and Snapchat’s business model. Our argument is that close examination of the place-based materiality and meaning of the Snapchat service for itself and for its clients reveals the interconnected construction and commodification of place through this service.
Live streaming platforms bring events from all around the world to people's computing devices. We conducted a mixed methods study including interviews (N = 42) and a survey (N = 223) to understand how people currently experience events using Facebook Live, Periscope, and Snapchat Live Stories. We identified four dimensions that make remote event viewing engaging: immersion, immediacy, interaction, and sociality. We find that both live streams and the more curated event content found on Snapchat are immersive and immediate, yet Snapchat Live Stories enable quickly switching among different views of the event. Live streams, on the other hand, offer real time interaction and sociality in a way that Snapchat Live Stories do not. However, the interaction's impact depends on comment volume, comment content, and relationship between viewer and broadcaster. We describe how people experience events remotely using these social media, and identify design opportunities around detecting exciting content, leveraging multiple viewpoints, and enabling interactivity to create engaging user experiences for remotely participating in events.
Abstract What happens when the fashionable beauty ideal – typically considered unattainable – becomes instantly attainable for the masses with the mere tap of a touchscreen? As the widespread use of Snapchat's popular but problematic Lenses has shown, responses are mixed and critiques abound. The social media platform Snapchat introduced Lenses – commonly known as face filters – in 2015. These filters apply virtual accessories and edit facial features, enabling users to incorporate augmented reality technology into their daily sartorial practice. Through this 'digital adornment' users experiment with creativity and self-expression, as with cosmetics and clothing, while forging social connections. However, Snapchat's filters frequently spark controversy by slimming the jawlines and noses, enlarging the eyes and lips, and smoothing and lightening the complexions of millions of users. These effects have caused users to consider the powers of self-fashioning and question the standard of beauty being presented. By examining the observations and opinions presented in the online fashion, tech and news media, this study explores the problematic nature of Snapchat's beautifying filters. It traces users' dismay at how Snapchat, originally praised as a space for authentic, unfiltered self-presentation, became a force for aggressively perpetuating fashionable but exclusionary beauty ideals. It presents the range of reactions to these face-perfecting filters, from satisfaction and guilt to insecurity and body dysmorphia. It also explores the connection between face filters, cosmetics and feminine beauty ideals in a celebrity-led, self-image-saturated culture, with reference to brand-sponsored filters.
Launched in 2011, Snapchat is one of the newest social media platforms with over 158 million active daily users. This study investigated the presence of dermatology-related content on Snapchat. We searched for Snapchat accounts for the top ten most popular dermatology journals, professional dermatological organizations, and dermatology-related patient advocate groups on social media. None of the above-mentioned entities were found on Snapchat. Plastic surgeons were found to primarily utilize the application, although one prominent dermatologist was also found. It was theorized that the brevity of the "snaps" was a contributing factor for dermatological organizations to not use the application. However, Snapchat in the right practice setting may be useful for dermatologists, not only to educate followers, but also as a marketing tool to Millennials.
The social media application Snapchat has ascended rapidly, quickly becoming the third most utilized platform of millennials with a valuation as high as US$19 billion. A national survey of 125 respondents revealed that people using Snapchat to follow sports devote roughly the same amount of time to the platform as Facebook and more time than Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. Despite finding other platforms better for sport information seeking, relaxation, and interaction, respondents still reported using Snapchat as a main platform for facilitating sport fandom. Both sport fandom and identification bolstered likelihood of using Snapchat for sport-related interactions. Implications for communication and sport scholars and industry professionals are offered.
The present study proposes that affiliation motivation plays a key role in driving Snapchat use. Constructs from the technology acceptance and relational maintenance literature were incorporated to examine the normative and interpersonal goals associated with Snapchat use. It was hypothesized that these two models and their associated constructs illustrate behavioral and cognitive phenomena that are tied to and fueled by the innate human desire to affiliate with others. The study was conducted using an online survey at a large, Midwestern university with a final student sample of 236. Perceived playfulness, subjective norm, trust, and critical mass (TAM constructs), as well as assurances and positivity (RM behaviors), were all found to be significantly and positively correlated with Snapchat use. This study highlights the interpersonal value of Snapchat and adds to the existing literature examining various information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools for relational maintenance.
Snapchat allows users to apply lenses to photographic content, with these lenses often enhancing physical appearance. This may lead users to adopt unrealistic ideals of physical appearance. In a two-part study with college students, this investigation explored associations between general use of Snapchat lenses and body image concerns, and experimentally examined how taking selfies with Snapchat lenses influences appearance satisfaction. Taking more photos using Snapchat lenses, in general, was associated with greater body image concerns. However, there was little experimental evidence indicating that taking selfies with lenses influences state appearance satisfaction relative to an appearance-neutral control. There was no evidence of gender moderation. Notably, taking more selfies without lenses until reaching one satisfactory for posting on social media was associated with greater body image concerns.
Guided by communication privacy management theory, this study tested network size, network diversity, privacy concerns, and privacy management practices in and between Facebook and Snapchat for social media natives. A cross-sectional survey of 273 college students (predominately Caucasian, female, 18- to 20 years old) showed that audiences were larger and more diverse in Facebook than Snapchat. Snapchat users with larger friend lists and lower privacy concerns reported more shared boundary ownership, whereas those with more diverse networks reportedly used more open friending practices to expand their connections. Higher privacy concerns were related to more restrictive privacy management practices in both mediums, and participants were overall more open on Snapchat than on Facebook. Theoretical and practical implications were presented in efforts to inform future research.
In this short essay, I argue that the ephemeral nature of emerging instant-messaging applications, such as Snapchat, applies an oral paradigm. While online discourse of computer-mediated communication shares many qualities with oral communication, the case of ephemeral applications is unique, as the oral features are already integrated in the application technology design and as orality is often implemented on highly visual products. Snapchat applies technology that fades visual contents as if they were spoken words fading in the air after utterance. Moreover, Snapchat’s promise to delete all messages from its database after they are viewed echoes a key characteristic of primary oral culture: that is, the inability (and in our case, the obligation not) to store knowledge. In this, Snapchat demonstrates counter-logic to the contemporary grammar of new media, which is based on information aggregation.
During the 2016 presidential election cycle, Clinton and Trump used Snapchat as one part of their overall voter outreach and engagement efforts. This portion of their campaign strategy was disproportionately targeted toward younger voters, since those between 18 and 25 comprise a vast portion of Snapchat’s user base. Did their efforts, those of political parties, or those of interest groups on Snapchat produce higher levels of civic engagement among college students? We utilize a survey that we conducted from a college campus in the Midwest in October 2016 to answer this question. Using a series of matching analyses, we discover that those students who sent pictures or videos about interest groups, candidates for office, or political parties on Snapchat were more civically and politically active than otherwise similar students who had not participated in these activities.
Despite its high popularity, Snapchat remains a mystery to many marketers. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to gain a thorough understanding of how users define Snapchat usage in terms of their cognitive processing and behavioral patterns. 14 core associations for Snapchat media usage were explored in focus groups, which were then converted into a consensus map using the concept map method (N = 96). Unlike previous studies, the findings suggest that Snapchat is not so much a medium for continuous communication with the consumer. Nevertheless, it can enrich relationships with them. Media usage is determined by hedonistic goals, while rational goals and normative constraints are in the background. Marketers should therefore focus their attention on aesthetic, affective and alternating stimuli.