The latest news comes as a growing number of advertisers, media companies, and investors take a closer look at the relatively young platform, especially as it numbers begin to compare more to those of more established Web presences like Facebook. Back in November, Mark Zuckerberg’s company said that it had 8 billion daily video views. But on Snapchat, “conversations are not only including a photo or video, but are being started by them,” said Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “People’s behavior is changing so that photos are being used as speech instead of a repository for memories.”
According to Bloomberg’s sources, over a third of Snapchat’s regular user base uses the “Stories” feature, which allows users to share with their followers photos and videos that are viewable for 24 hours. With its camera-first approach, Snapchat is actively encouraging more people to create content of their own, and to broadcast it with the world. And broadcast they do — earlier reports suggested that about 60 percent of Snapchat users send daily snaps, and spend an average of 25 to 30 minutes on the app.
Of course, it’s not all fun and games with Spiegel’s company. Snapchat is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the victim of a car accident. As Digital Trends reported earlier, “Uber driver Wentworth Maynard, who suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the high-speed accident … claims that the distracted driver of the car that struck his vehicle at 107 mph on a highway outside of Atlanta, Georgia was busy using Snapchat’s miles-per-hour filter at the time of the crash.”
