Snapchat has reached a new usage milestone in India, with the app now up to 250 million Indian users.
That means that India is now Snap’s biggest user market, with the nation making up more than a quarter of Snap’s overall audience.
As per Snap:
“The India digital opportunity is massive, and Snapchat India is strategically poised to capitalise on this growing opportunity by bringing culturally relevant experiences to Indian audiences through local content initiatives, partnerships, and maintaining a dedicated focus on regional creators through Spotlight and Stories.”
In terms of audience specifics, Snapchat says that 90% of its Indian audience is aged between 13 and 34, while on usage, 80% of its Indian users engage with its AR elements daily. India is also Snap’s second-largest AR developer market.
The app has been steadily growing in the Indian market for some time, really since the launch of its updated Android app back in 2019, which had been a point of controversy, in that Snap, for a long time, did not make Android connectivity a priority.
Indeed, back in 2017, a former Snap employee claimed that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had specifically noted that he didn’t care about expansion in India, allegedly explaining that: “This app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”
Spiegel has denied ever making such a statement, but the essence of Spiegel’s reported stance was present in the company’s approach, with Snap refusing to make it easy for people on lower-quality devices, or with limited data plans, to use its app.
But its revised Android focus made expansion in India possible, and as noted, it’s now become the single biggest market for the app.
Which bodes well for future opportunities, though looking at Snap’s relative revenue intake, it is worth noting that the U.S. remains its top revenue market, by a long way.
Snap has some work to do on that front, and it has acknowledged the need to maximize its business opportunities, in order to boost its potential.
As such, while India is now a key market, it will take time to develop as a key revenue driver. That’s the only relative downside to an expanded presence in the region, that Snap still needs to rely on the U.S. and Europe to make it money, despite its usage expansion in other areas.
But more users is clearly a good thing, and Snap is growing as a key connector in the Indian region.
