Snapchat's fuel machine: High GDPs, high-end smartphones and young blood

What if Snapchat is mere 1/8th the size of Facebook; the ephemeral photo sharing app never considered itself part of the rat-race. Snapchat isn't aiming for Mars or running after any milestones, it's for a special coterie- High GDPs, high-end smartphones and young blood. (Remember the not so famous 'Snapchat's for rich' fiasco.

Snapchat's driving force

Yes, you read it right. The social network doesn't want ubiquity. It's more than contended with its North American and European young blood cherried with big advertising dollars leaving others like Facebook the rest of the world.

According to its S-1 filing, Snapchat's daily active users (DAUs) visit the app over 18 times each day. Now, that's what we call crazy fan base.

Millenials= Advertising dollars

But that's not all. What positions Snapchat distinctly from its rivals is its main clientele- the young blood. For advertisers, that's nothing less than a goldmine. For Snapchat their fuel machine is countries with high GDPs and millennials with high-end smartphones.

Just before its first quarterly earning report, research firm eMarketer has come up with some figures that can surely unnerve Zuckerberg and his team for a while.

As per the eMarketer's data, 59 percent of 12-17 year-olds, 68 percent of 18-24 year-olds and 42 percent of 25-34 year-olds use the photo-sharing app at least once per month, each month throughout the year. If we look at Facebook's numbers for the same, they come out to be 64, 77 and 81 percent, respectively But with its 1.3 billion user base.

To be or not to be

Though the figures surely deserve a pat for Snapchat that has been able to keep its user base loyal and fervent, however small it may be. But the real question is how long will it be able to bask in it with social media apps becoming replicas of each other?( Facebook and Instagram- case in point)

Snapchat has ample time to ponder over the question, till then users can enjoy the cool and quirky app without fearing snooping old eyes of relatives or parents.