The photos might disappear but the battle is real

The battle of the ephemeral photo is heating up. At stake is the control of the 500 + million photos exchanged daily on Snapchat, more than Facebook and Instagram combined.

Ephemeral photography shows huge potential. Not only because of its vast and growing popularity, but mainly because it mostly reaches teenagers, a $200 to $300 billion/year market in the US only.  Around 30% of 18-29 year old smartphone users use Snapchat compared to 5% for the 30 to 49 year old group. In countries like Norway, it is installed on  half of all smartphones. Brands like Taco Bell, Mc Donald, 16 handles, Acura and MTV have already integrated it in their social media strategy and many more are to join.

No wonder then that after offering $3billion for the company  and being rejected, Mark Zuckerberg is now furiously seeking to replace with a Facebook product. In fact, it is more surprising that others like Yahoo or Google have not yet entered that space, either by acquisition or new products.

What ephemeral offers and that is extremely appealing to brands and advertising is it high level of engagement. Since the photo disappears forever after 10 seconds, you have to pay attention to it. An Instagram feed, or  even a Facebook timeline just slips away hourly and most is never seen by users too busy with other activities. With ephemeral you have to stop everything else you are doing and pay attention. An advertiser’s dream. Since you have to press and hold to see your Snapchat, every engagement is recorded. That is powerful analytics.

Facebook finally  launched it’s Snapchat assassin called Slingshot in a very expected but casual way. Labelled as a product designed on the side by a group of Facebook engineers and released without too much noise, it is however a well thought out app. One of its key differentiating feature is the necessity to respond, forcing users into a dialogue. This will be key to monetization later on as brands will be able to track the response rate to their campaigns and more thoroughly engage with their consumers.

Snapchat did not bite the bullet. Instead, they released the next day a group snapchatting feature that will allow brands to communicate to a large group of involved  users instead of one on one. Up to know, one had to decide to follow a brand on Snapchat to receive their updates, which made it hard for brands to acquire new customers. With its new release, anyone participating in an event can send and share their images which will undoubtedly be interrupted by brands sponsored Snapchat. Called “Our Story”, this new feature will be first introduced at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Last Vegas next Weekend

Undoubtedly, we didn’t hear the last of it.  Not only Snapchat or  Facebook will continue to fight hard for control of this space but other lesser known companies (Wire, Clipchat, Squawk, Wickr) might emerge as leaders upon the release of a killer feature. Furthermore, it will not be surprising to see other online giants like Yahoo or Google enter this much coveted space.