India is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for social media and messaging apps. With a young demographic and increasing smartphone penetration, the country presents immense opportunities for companies in this space. Snapchat, the popular ephemeral messaging app, also recognizes India’s potential. Let’s examine what Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel has said about their plans and outlook towards India.
Snapchat’s Struggles in India
Snapchat has struggled to gain traction amongst Indian users ever since its launch. Back in 2017, Spiegel admitted that Snapchat was having difficulties in establishing itself in India. He said, “India is a really tough market. It’s hard for us to win there for a number of reasons.”
Some of the challenges faced by Snapchat in India include:
- Stiff competition from established players like WhatsApp and Facebook
- Lack of localization and culturalization
- Slow and unstable performance of the app
- Limited marketing and brand awareness campaigns
These issues have contributed to Snapchat’s inability to grow in India. As per reports, the app had under 20 million monthly active users in India in 2022 – an insignificant number in a country with over 500 million smartphone users.
Snapchat’s Efforts to Gain Traction in India
Despite the initial struggles, Snapchat has been trying to strengthen its foothold in the Indian market. Evan Spiegel acknowledged that they needed to build an India-specific version of Snapchat to be more culturally relevant.
Some of Snapchat’s efforts include:
- Launching localization features like integrating Indian festivals into lenses/filters
- Partnerships with Jio platforms and homegrown apps like ShareChat
- Experimenting with India-centric marketing campaigns
- Localization initiatives like supporting more Indian languages
The company also ramped up hiring for their India operations and engineering teams to build more contextually relevant products. Snap has signaled its commitment to gaining market share in India despite facing competitive odds.
Evan Spiegel’s Views on Opportunities in India
At a company summit in 2021, CEO Evan Spiegel spoke about the opportunities he sees for Snapchat in India. Here are some key highlights:
- Spiegel believes India will be crucial in Snap’s global growth plans with the digital advertising market projected to grow dramatically.
- India has an ethnically and linguistically diverse population, which can yield insights for Snap’s goal of deeply localizing experiences.
- The country has one of the youngest demographics globally with 50% of population under 25 years. Snapchat can potentially target this large Gen Z/millennial audience.
- Rising levels of education, employment and disposable incomes make India’s youth an attractive prospect for Snapchat.
- Snap can also capitalize on India’s world-leading film/entertainment industry and creator ecosystem for partnerships.
Clearly, Snapchat is paying close attention to India and aims to customise experiences for the market. Spiegel wants Snap to Collaborate with Indian creators, brands and businesses to boost relevance.
Spiegel on Challenges in India
At the same summit, Spiegel also spoke candidly about some of the challenges Snapchat must overcome in India:
- Many parts of India still have low-end bandwidth and phones. Snapchat must optimise for these infrastructure constraints.
- Building culturally nuanced experiences for India’s diversity is difficult but crucial for growth.
- WhatsApp has achieved deep user penetration in India already. Competing with such an entrenched player will require sustained efforts.
- Monetizing through advertising in India will also be challenging initially given Snapchat’s low user numbers currently.
Spiegel noted these are longer term challenges that require Snapchat to keep evolving its products, culture and localization efforts. But he remains optimistic about Snap’s future prospects in India.
Key Quotes by Evan Spiegel on India
Here are some telling quotes from Evan Spiegel that give insights into Snapchat’s India outlook:
- “India has an incredibly vibrant culture and a growing economy. We are excited about the opportunities to help Snapchatters in India see the world from a new perspective.”
- “Supporting more local languages in India is an important part of deepening our localization efforts for the community.”
- “We still have a lot of work to do in India, but it’s an exciting opportunity.”
- “India is the perfect example of a market where continued innovation and localization will be key.”
- “Investing early in India’s creator economy can have long term payoffs for Snapchat as we expand our platform.”
These quotes highlight Snapchat’s emphasis on catering to local Indian user needs. The focus areas seem to be building for India’s unique infrastructure, diversified culture and massive creator base.
Snapchat’s User Base Growth in India
After struggling initially, Snapchat has managed to grow its user base in India at a steady pace in recent years. Here is a table showing Snapchat’s Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in India over the years:
| Year | Monthly Active Users |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 3-4 million |
| 2018 | 10-11 million |
| 2019 | 15-18 million |
| 2020 | 20-22 million |
| 2021 | 25-30 million |
| 2022 | 35-40 million (projected) |
The addition of vernacular language support, regional content and celebrity partnerships have helped Snapchat improve penetration amongst Indian youth. The launch of dedicated news and entertainment channels have also contributed to user growth.
However, Snapchat’s India MAUs remain small compared to leading social apps. WhatsApp has over 400 million users, Instagram about 210 million, while TikTok had over 200 million prior to its ban.
Future Strategies Suggested for Snapchat in India
Here are some suggestions for Snapchat to further improve its position and viewership in India:
- Partner with telecom players like Jio to bundle Snapchat with affordable data plans.
- Onboard more diverse Indian creator talent across various regional languages.
- Create celebrity lenses and geofilters featuring Bollywood stars and cricketers.
- Allow sharing of Snapchat stories to WhatsApp status which has over 400 million users in India.
- Optimize the Android app for low-end devices and intermittent networks found in India.
Pursuing these product enhancements while continuing to localize culturally should help Snapchat gain more relevance amongst Indian youth. But the company needs to maintain persistence and patience to win in this competitive market.
Conclusion
To summarize, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has clearly stated India is a key strategic market for Snap despite the challenges faced initially. Spiegel has highlighted opportunities in India’s youth demographics, creator ecosystem and digital advertising growth. Localization across infrastructure, language, content and marketing will be crucial for Snapchat to gain more users and engagement in India. Snap has already made progress by growing MAUs steadily through celebrity partnerships and vernacular support. But the competition is fierce, and Snapchat needs to tailor experiences for India’s diversity to succeed in the long run. It remains to be seen whether Snapchat’s efforts result in a mainstream breakthrough in the coming years.