Snap to double down on India as user base crosses 60 million

Snap, a multimedia messaging app co-founded by Evan Spiegel has seen its user base cross the 60-million mark in India, as it sees growing engagement across its offerings.

In an email interview to Moneycontrol's Swathi Moorthy, Snap’s Nana Murugesan, Managing Director, International Markets, shared details on the company's India plans, the launch of Spotlight (a Tiktok like video streaming platform) and more. Edited excerpts:

Last year Snap saw significant growth in its user base in India. Could you share what led to the growth? What are the company’s plans to expand its reach in India?

In 2020 we saw our community in India grow faster than ever before—strengthening throughout the year— with over 150 percent daily active user growth YoY in Q420 (December 2020). India is a key market for Snap and this momentum comes down to three things.

First of all, we see a natural connection with our community in India to what Snapchat is all about— empowering visual, expressive communication with those we care about the most. This has become more important than ever in the wake of the global pandemic and it’s been really great to see how Indians have embraced our platform.

Secondly, we’ve been working hard to make Snapchat accessible and feel both culturally and locally relevant. We increased support to nine languages. We now have over 30 partners on Discover publishing content covering many diverse topics and genres, and our first Snap Original franchise on the way! We also have invested in a range of creative tools for cultural moments such as Republic Day, Diwali, Holi and Buddha Jayanti, as well as more regional festivals such as Pongal, Lohri, and Makar Sankranti. We have also worked with leading mobile partners including Jio and Samsung to distribute our app on popular smartphones and drive creative programs such as ‘Jio’s Got Talent’.

Thirdly, engaging with our community through augmented reality (AR). As mentioned we see this with Lenses, but more broadly, AR is revolutionising how people communicate, are entertained, learn and experience the world, shop, and we see this evolution accelerating.

As we look ahead to this year, we will double down investment in partnerships, experiences and product developments that help Snapchat resonate with our community in India.

Though the number of downloads has increased, monetisation is a challenge. According to a source, who is aware of Snapchat's growth in India, revenues from India are less than $20 million yearly. Could you comment on the same?

Whilst I’m unable to share more detail on our revenue outside of our earnings call, what I can say is that we have grown our revenues in India in response to enthusiasm from and successful outcomes for advertisers of all sizes.

Could you share the company's plans to push brand marketing in India and also how you are addressing the challenges? Could you share the primary revenue generator in the country?

As mentioned in our most recent earnings call, last year we strengthened our ad platform to drive improved outcomes for advertisers all over the world. In India, we work with brands across the verticals of entertainment, media, fashion, retail and tech to create engaging campaigns to help them expand their reach.

Can you share how many Snapchat employees are there in India and the company's plans to grow this number? This is not including Tyroo, the monetisation platform for Snapchat.

We have opened our office in 2019 and have been taking a holistic approach in building the team—first focusing on establishing the functions that we need to succeed. We now have leads representing the growth strategy, partnerships, sales, content and editorial, talent and creative strategy teams. We will continue to strategically grow our team in India and work hard to localise our service, forge and grow healthy partnerships in the region and engage the Snapchat community.

Lens Studio is picking up fast with brands embracing filters for marketing. Can you share the investments the company is making in this space and also the monetisation plan for Lens Studio?

We have always believed that building and investing in tools like Lens Studio make AR accessible. This is important as we believe this technology will be a key part of digital skills in the future.

What are the company's thoughts on launching Spotlight (a Tiktok like video streaming platform) in the country? Is it true that the company is delaying its launch?

We are not delaying the launch of Spotlight in India. We launched in a handful of countries last year and are actively looking to expand availability over time, but are doing so thoughtfully to ensure we can scale our rigorous moderation efforts.