At the end of 2018, social app Snap was in a daze.
Zucky McNoNewIdeas shamelessly copied Snap Stories on Instagram and — frankly — many industry observers were convinced that the social media wars were over.
As it turns out, social media is as competitive as ever in 2021.
Snap has seen its valuation explode
At its low point, Snap’s market cap was under $10B, leading its cofounder and CEO Evan Spiegel to tell The Information “[expletive] the markets” while he stuck to a 10-year vision.
It worked: Today, Snap is worth $100B+, and just announced that it expects to see 50% YoY revenue growth for “several years.” (We previously covered its comeback here).
Twitter is also showing signs of life
The social media company was founded in 2006, not long after
Facebook. For years, though, Twitter has lagged FB (the latter has a market cap that is 10x larger).
However, a slew of recent changes are turning the ship around:
- Acquisition of newsletter company Revue
- A clone of social audio app Clubhouse (called Spaces)
- Talk of rolling out subscription services (e.g., upgraded bios)
On Thursday, Twitter’s analyst day showed plans to double revenue to $7.5B by 2023 and reach 315m monetizable daily active users. It also released a Super Follow feature for users to sell exclusive content for $4.99/month.
Its share price is up 50%+ since mid-January and the company is now worth ~$60B.
Throw short video app TikTok into the mix (AND Clubhouse, Dispo) and it’s clear that Zuck isn’t the only one having fun.
(For a deep dive on the newly competitie social media landscape, read this great piece from tech reporter Casey Newton).
