Snap’s ad woes bode ill for a new generation of social apps

Reports that Snap is cutting headcount by 20% and restructuring its ads team amid tough economic conditions, increased competition and privacy concerns highlight the difficulties faced by newly popular social apps as they seek to monetise. 

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away

Snap’s problems, as at Facebook and elsewhere, stem in part from changes to Apple’s privacy policy which have made it harder for apps to target advertising and measure the success of campaigns. At the same time, however, a new generation of social apps like BeReal, Locket and LiveIn benefitted from the release of iOS 14 which let users add widgets to their home screen for the first time. 

New apps are growing popularity 

Photo-sharing platform BeReal has been number one in the free apps category on Apple's iPhone app store for weeks, notes the Wall Street Journal. And similar apps Locket and LiveIn have racked up 44 million downloads since the start of the year. 

Their popularity is being driven by a promise of greater privacy and more authentic interactions, says the Journal’s Dalvin Brown. “Users tell me they like that there’s no pressure to figure out your brand or aesthetic, there aren't trends to try or challenges to pursue – it’s just you and your friends.”

But how to monetise? 

The options are limited: paid subscriptions or advertising. There’s currently little appetite for the first and, without a rethink of existing formats, the second threatens to wreck the intimate user experience that people have come to value.

And, Brown adds, whatever they do they’ll need to do it before the bigger players copy them.

Sourced from Financial Times, Wall Street Journal 

^{[Image: BeReal]}