Dive Brief:

• In 2015, Snapchat grew its 18-24 base by 56%, while its 25-34 year old users increased 103% and, most notably, its over-35 user base grew 84% according to comScore.
• According to Snapchat, 12% of its almost 50 million daily users in the U.S. are between 35 and 54.

Dive Insight:

As a social media platform, Snapchat is most often identified with millennials. While it’s still growing that demographic, the fact that it’s now adding users older than 25 should be great news for its investors and marketers looking to advertise on the app.

The platform actively increased advertising opportunities through 2015, and gaining older users with higher incomes should make Snapchat even more attractive for advertisers.

Curiously, its penetration with the younger demographics may be helping drive its current growth with older users.

"Almost everyone I talk to, it's their niece that shows them Snapchat. Then they start seeing how it works," Kevin Del Rosario, associate director of social at the consulting firm Huge Inc., told the Los Angeles Times,. 

For its part, Snapchat has been running billboards that feature its familiar logo, a tactic that should drive awareness about the app by sparking curiosity that could get younger users to introduce the app to a potential older audience.

In order to facilitate ad sales, Snapchat announced last week that it’s creating an API expected to be ready for testing by its partners this spring.