BT Exclusive: Big opportunity in India; incredible to see Indians use AR, says Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel

Snapchat, the multimedia instant messaging app, is bullish about India after crossing the 200-million subscriber mark in just 2.5 years. In an exclusive conversation with Business Today, Evan Spiegel, co-founder & CEO of Snap Inc, the $4.6-billion company that owns the app, said the community of users continues to grow in India and that “it is great time to be here”. 

At the picturesque Amanbagh (off Jaipur), the 33-year-old said there was a lot of excitement watching youngsters express themselves on the app. Snapchat’s target audience is the 13-34 age group. “It is quite incredible to just watch how people have been using augmented reality in India and showing their videos to friends. To me it is clear that there is a big opportunity to be in India apart from this being a great time as well to do that.”  

Globally, most of Snap Inc’s revenue—around 99 per cent—comes from advertising. In India, too, the sharp growth in digital has been a big story and the company is looking to get a chunk of that. Various reports estimate the digital advertising spend at upwards of Rs 40,000 crore (around $8 billion) and continues to grow on a large base.  

On the uniqueness of Snapchat, Spiegel is clear that “a picture is worth a thousand words and it is clear how Snapchat has grown well in many other parts of the world. It comes from the fact that youngsters really like the idea of expressing themselves”.  

On India, he says, “It has been a lot of fun to just watch people using Snapchat.” 

As a platform, it was built to provide an alternative to social media. The form of expression was through a camera, making the app unique from the competition. Founded in 2011, the company is headquartered in California’s Santa Monica.  

Snap sees its focus on data minimisation and privacy as key differentiators since content uploaded remains online for a limited period. In India, the renewed focus on privacy as seen as working to its advantage vis-à-vis other social media platforms.