This is very important. I watch Instagram and Snapchat stories every day. Instagram is 2 or 3 celebrity stories, then I scroll down to look at a few new pics. Snapchat is a constant stream of glimpses into the lives of my close friends.

edit: I'm curious if this is true only for my friend groups/demographic/principal component, poll here: http://www.strawpoll.me/12939274

Snap calls itself the friends and family network for a reason. Instagram is a mix of celebrities, influencers, businesses, friends and family.

Why? Their monetization strategy so far has been brand advertisement interspersed as vertical video ads between Stories. This doesn't require any particular kind of content, only that they can hold your attention for 10 seconds or so while they show you an advertisement.

And their monitization strategy so far has led to larger losses than expected, less revenue per user, and slower user growth.

It might make for a better user experience but that's not good for a free service

Good point but I think the solution is not to gut their good user experience, but to figure out better monetization strategies. Because better user experience is about the only thing keeping them in the Game.

Well yes, they would likely keep their current one while expanding into new areas.

I'd argue though the only thing keeping them in the game is network effects and fighting that fight vs IG is... going to be challenging.

This thread is very interesting for me. I've never used Snapchat before, and I deleted my Facebook years ago. However I do use Instagram daily. The caveat there is that I've never viewed or have taken a story. Video just feels very odd and antithetical to the reason I use the platform (which is to post outdoor photos). I guess if I could upload high quality video to a story I'd be more interested in it.

If you're worried about quality, you're missing the point. Stories as a concept work because they are informal glimpses into people.

A side note: I've seen an increasing number of friends on Whatsapp use the 'Status' feature to share pictures (which works like Stories).

It's a very tiny percentage so far - maybe 1-2% of my contacts list - but it is being used.

If this gets to about 10%, Snapchat should be worried. Whatsapp has a massive user base in developing countries.

Not to forget that for many, many users in emerging markets, the mobile carriers offer free data for WhatsApp. Traveling through Colombia, and I can use WhatsApp status for free over here. SnapChat kills my data.

Which is a really bad thing for net neutrality...

I was about to write the same thing. Here in Sweden you often see adverts for telcos where they offer free data for Facebook usage and stuff like that. We're not a developing country and you'll get a fair bit of data at a reasonable cost here, so it's perhaps not as obvious how this skews things in favour of the big players, but it's there alright, and it's sad.

I really really really hope this does not happen. I already don't like how much data WhatsApp eats after downloading shared images and such. I want WhatsApp to be text and group text and thats IT.

I suspect it'd be pretty different. Stories are right at the top when you open the app and are used by quite a few celebs - that must inflate the numbers a lot.

Registered lurkers still count as active users. As a matter of fact, social media follows the 80:20 rule when it comes to steady content creation