Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel will be pulling out something risky in order to save Snapchat.
The parent company of Snapchat, Snap entered their third quarter earnings with a lot of disappointment as their revenue and user growth both exponentially dipped. In order to right their ship, Spiegel declared that Snapchat will make some drastic moves and everyone will not like it.
The CEO also added that they are planning on redesigning Snapchat to be more user-friendly for older people and it will start using data to power its feed instead of following its reverse-chronological system that it's been using ever since.
In a written statement, Spiegel highlighted the things that they need to work on, starting with Snapchat's redesign. He added, "One thing that we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, and our team has been working on responding to this feedback." His statement goes on to say they are aware that the app's redesign will disrupt the business' short-term plans but they are willing to take the risk to reach their long-term goal.
Spiegel also wrote that they are crafting a solution that will cater to their Daily Active Users while maintaining the editorial integrity of their stories platform. They are hoping that showing the right Stories to the right audience demographic will help gain traction in engagement and revenue for their partners, especially the ones that places ads on Snapchat.
If Snapchat's plans fail with their redesign and planned new features, it could spell lead to their teenage users abandoning ship. There is a likelihood that this demographic will prefer the old version of the app and will probably transfer to Instagram once the changes stick. Over the years, Spiegel and Snapchat have relied on their instincts rather than data to tailor their products to their users. However, with their instinctive choices failing them, they will need to look somewhere else to save the app and the company as a whole.
