Snapchat is expressing a desire to become a socially powered local discovery engine. In the last few years, the company have launched several geo-local efforts such as Geofilters, Snap Map, Local Place Promote and Local Lenses.
The common thread in these movements is the idea that social interaction may spark local, in-person activities, like meeting a friend for a drink. This, in turn, increases Snapchat’s engagement, especially when looking at the Gen-Z generation. Higher engagement and deeper relationships with local companies, who are prospective advertisers, equal income for an ad-centric company like Snapchat.
Snap’s most recent launch in line with their geo-local strategy is ‘My Places’. A feature that adds structure to local discovery by providing new ways to interact with 30 million local businesses. It specifically allows Snap Map’s 250 million users to tag, share, and check into their favourite locations.
Mapvertising
My Places’ user interface is organized around three tabs; “Visited” the places you’ve checked into, “Favorites” lets users decide which places they like best, and “Popular” is a discovery engine that algorithmically suggests new places to its users.
The latter is arguably the most significant since it further distinguishes Snap Map from Google Maps. Snap analyzes information such as a user’s present location, previous check-ins or “favorite” places, and how all of these signals flow from one’s Snapchat social graph to generate intelligent suggestions.
The launch of My Places also allows Snapchat to add layers, for example: an “entertainment” layer with data from Ticketmaster. More layers will develop around food, fun, and more.
Furthermore, it also aligns with Snapchat’s ‘Local Place promote’. It offers SMBs to pay for exposure and targeted mapvertising within the Snap Map UX.
Augmented Reality
My Places is in line with one of Snapchat’s biggest product targets, namely AR. Through lenses and visual search, the technology continues to fuel Snap’s revenue growth (Snap Scan). And it is already using AR in geolocal ways, such as Local Lenses.
Local Lenses are the geo-specific variant of Snap’s famous selfie lenses. They make use of rear-facing cameras to augment the physical world. This results in a wider addressable market for lens-based advertising, in addition to items that go on one’s face.
The My Places database, which grows as a result of user activity, may be able to support Local Lenses. Local Lenses, for example, can identify and annotate local businesses since they are driven by MyPlaces location data. Google’s Live View feature offers something similar.
It seems that Snapchat wants to compete with Google Maps as a local search and discovery engine. Looking at their heavy Gen-Z users and a social layer for local interactions, it could work. Do you think Snapchat will ever replace Google Maps as a discovery engine?
References:
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/28/snapchat-adds-my-places-feature-to-snap-map-connecting-users-to-businesses/
- https://www.localogy.com/snap-continues-steady-march-towards-local-search/
- https://arinsider.co/2021/06/04/snap-doubles-down-on-ar-part-ii/
- https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/snapchat-adds-my-places-feature-to-snap-map-for-local-recommendations/
- https://streetfightmag.com/2021/08/19/is-snap-building-a-local-discovery-engine/
- https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchat-launches-my-places-to-highlight-local-businesses-of-interest-wit/604093/
Hi Daphne! Nice post, and definitely an interesting way Snapchat is heading into. Grieve (2017) explains that Snapchat users are mostly younger and consider connectedness and (online) interaction very important, which is why I think the Local Lenses might be successful with Snapchat’s current users.
However, a past attempt of Snapchat to engage more with AR was the Snapchat Spectacles, which failed and resulted in a 40 million dollar write-off (Lamkin, 2018). Even though public opinion may doubt Snapchat from time to time, the platform is ever-growing, without slowing down (Brown, 2021). Snapchat might also struggle with alluring current non-users, like older generations.
To answer your question, I think it is highly dependent on how successful the Local Lenses will be. If they would be a true competitor for Google Maps is highly debatable. The potential might be there, but many have not forgotten the not-so-spectacular Spectacles.
Sources:
Brown, A. (2021, July 26). We Left Snapchat For Dead. Instead, It’s Thriving. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/07/23/we-left-snapchat-for-dead-instead-its-thriving/
Grieve, R., 2017. Unpacking the characteristics of Snapchat users: A preliminary investigation and an agenda for future research. Computers in Human Behavior, 74, pp.130-138
Lamkin, P. (2018, July 25). Snap Spectacles Chief Quits As Tech-Glasses Fail To Take Off. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paullamkin/2018/07/25/snap-spectacles-chief-quits-as-tech-glasses-fail-to-take-off/