Diffusion Theory & Snapchat

Technology is prevalent in our soceity as it appears everything nowadays runs some sort through the internet and communication. The diffusion of innovations theory that was founded in 1962 by Everett Rogers in his book "Diffusions of Innovations" looked to present a way for a deeper understanding in a manner of how, why, and in the manner of technology is spreading. These can be seen through statistical data representing the number of users or through research identifying the pros and cons of the technology. 

One piece of technology I wanted to dive into was research through the lens of the diffusion theory in the application of Snapchat. The social media application currently possesses around 443 million daily users which has been on a constant increase since 2019. There are many reasons why Snapchat has become such a hit to so many users around the globe. The first is it provides an alternative to iMessage on the iPhone

and allows people to communicate with pictures going back and forth between people. This is the first social media platform that directly allowed communications through pictures in a rather easy method. It also allows people to upload pictures of their daily activities and cool events. This was not the first of its kind as Instagram and Facebook allowed for the uploading of pictures however Snapchat took a different approach to the method. As the posts only last for about 24 hours, allowing people to directly communicate about the pictures through direct messaging caused a difference that Instagram and Facebook didn't possess. Snapchat also formulated a program for a more personalized system of communication compared to the other social media platforms. These are reasons for the catch-on and spread that led to 443 million daily users on Snapchat.

Snapchat generally targeted younger demographics as it appealed to their generations as the were the first general adopters of the social media platform. Comparing the application to the older generation it really never hit their demographic base early in its founding. Many of the users of those generations happened to be very content with Facebook and iMessage in their forms of communication and social media. Diving into the cost-benefit of Snapchat for much of the time of the lifespan of the application it remained a free app. It wasn't until last summer, that a new application of Snapchat arose which was Snapchat Plus which caused a 4 dollar a month increase if users elected to buy the subscription which just improved the apps performance, and gave some new tools for service. However its main for making money lies in the company's advertisement, as many companies buy advertisements in Snapchat to showcase their brand or items. This has led to over 5 billion dollar in total revenue for Snapchat. Not bad at all for the application that started off as a knockoff iMessage.

In conclusion after looking at the application of Snapchat through the lens of the diffusion theory, it has shown why Snapchat has had constant success since its founding in 2011. While appearing to be maintaining steam roaring in the second half of the 2024.