Snapchat’s growth from an unknown product run by a group of Stanford undergrads who had originally presented the idea during an engineering class to being subject to multi-billion dollar offers is unbelievable.
The secret sauce to snapchat’s viral growth is that it was able to capture a lightweighter form of interacting than texting, twitting or Facebook messaging.
As with every app-based product in the tech world, high school student and college students are the main catalyst in promoting the product. However, MySpace is testimony that this very group of costumers could be attracted to another product and completely forget about the one before. Snapchat currently isn’t showing any signs of slowing down but the main concern is that the product is so simplified that any attempt of the founders to innovate the product could come across as being forced and consequently eliminate the comparative advantage of functionality that has served them very well so far.
When the next ‘big thing’ emerges from another genius’ dorm room, I fear snapchat may regret not taking the multi-billion dollar offer currently on the table from Facebook.