Dive Brief:
- Monthly user sign-ups for both Snapchat and Instagram are down 21% since January 2016, according to research from the analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Marketing Dive. Breaking new user sign-ups down by platform, Instagram was down 24% and Snapchat was down 36%.
- In February 2016, Instagram took 25% of all new user sign-ups across both platforms, but by February 2017 that share grew to 36%.
- For Snapchat, its peak market share happened in September 2016, with 78% of new user sign-ups, but has been falling since, with the largest decrease between December 2016 and January 2017, as monthly sign-ups dropped 5% during that period.
Dive Insight:
Snap, Snapchat's parent company, has hit some rocky patches post-IPO following gloomy analyst forecasts, many centered around the platform's apparently stalled user growth. Part of that stagnating audience has been attributed to Instagram, particularly the rise in popularity of its Stories feature, often deemed a Snapchat clone.
Jumpshot's research only reinforces that Instagram might be stealing some of Snapchat's thunder, though the finding that monthly sign-ups for both platforms are down considerably from the year-ago period suggests that users might be cooling off on adoption of social media platforms more broadly.
Snapchat's market share peaking in September makes sense given that Instagram Stories launched in August.
Facebook has been aggressively adding Snapchat look-alike features to its various properties including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and, most recently, its namesake platform.
Marketers have been more than happy to glom onto the popularity of Instagram Stories, for example, which might be another problem for Snapchat as surveys suggest marketing professionals give Snap's platform especially low grades when it comes to key metrics like return on investment.
