But when it comes to Snapchat’s importance as a marketing tool you don’t have to take my word for it. There are plenty of numbers to back up the claim. 

In this post I’m going to cover some of the most compelling data-powered reasons to use this platform. 

1. Snapchat has 100m daily active users

It may not be up there with Facebook’s first billion, but Snapchat is relatively young and growing at an extremely fast rate. 

2. 65% of those users share content every day

Snapchat’s users are not just lurking in the background. The majority of them actively create and share content on a daily basis, so you are dealing with a highly engaged audience. 

3. 8,796 photos are shared on Snapchat every second

Just think about that for a second…

In that second you spent thinking about it Snapchat’s users shared almost 9,000 photos. 

4. It would take 10 years to view all photos shared on Snapchat in the last hour

By the time you’d finished viewing those photos, another 880,000 years’ worth of photos would have been shared on the social network. 

5. More photos are shared on Snapchat than any other social network

The image below shows a comparison of the different social networks in terms of the number of photos shared in the two minutes I spent staring at the pretty data visualisation

Snapchat photo sharing stats

6. Snapchat users like shopping online

76% of users purchased a product online in the last month, according to a report by GlobalWebIndex. 

And users are primarily motivated by coupons and discounts when it comes to online purchases, presenting potential opportunities for retailers.  

7. Snapchat achieves 6bn video views a day

6bn. That is absolutely huge, especially when you consider it’s only made up of mobile views. 

Facebook, by comparison, achieves about 8bn daily video views across both desktop and mobile. And the gap is closing. 

8. Video views have tripled since May 2015

Not only does Snapchat achieve an enormous amount of daily video views, it is also growing at an exponential rate in that department. 

Since May this year, Snapchat has tripled its number of daily video views. 

9. Snapchat’s audience is entirely mobile

Mobile. That’s where all this digital stuff is going, right? Snapchat’s user base is entirely made up of smartphone users, so if that’s the audience you’re looking for you’ll certainly find them there. 

10. Younger audiences prefer Snapchat

Snapchat’s core users are 13-24 year olds, according to Statista, and according to a Piper Jaffray survey it is more popular than Facebook among US teens. 19% of them say it is the most important social network. 

Those at university love it too, with 77% of US college students saying they use the app daily according to a study by Sumpto. 

11. Snapchat’s advertising platform will reach 16m viewers a day

Sponsored Selfie Filters are expected to reach up to 16m Snapchat users every day, according to a report by Buzzfeed. 

That said, you’d better have deep pockets because ad units will apparently cost up to a maximum of $700,000 a day.

12. 60m people visit Snapchat Discover each month

Snapchat Discover is effectively the platform’s curated content hub. It’s a collection of stories from various publishers, and as you can see it already achieves a massive volume of traffic each month. 

13. Cosmopolitan is averaging 3m viewers a day on Snapchat Discover

The women’s magazine already has a huge daily following on Snapchat Discover, according to Digiday, suggesting there is a real opportunity for publishers to engage with their readers on the platform. 

14. A music brand generated 340m Snapchat impressions at a two-day event 

Digital music brand iHeartRadio generated more than 340m impressions on Snapchat during its two-day music festival in September this year, according to a report by Adweek. 

15. Only 1% of advertisers are currently using Snapchat

Which means your competitors are likely not taking full advantage of this platform. Get in there before they do and achieve the same level of smugness as brands that built a Facebook page eight years ago. 

If you’re still not convinced…

Check out what other brands are doing on Snapchat: