Welcome to the first-ever edition of Decoded.
Once a month, we'll slow down and go deep, dissecting one trending story, one industry update, or one burning question, breaking it down until it becomes clear.For our first edition, we chose Snapchat. The yellow ghost that refuses to disappear. For some, it is a relic of streaks and goofy filters. For Gen Z, it is still a lifeline. For marketers, it is a puzzle. Explosive global growth, flatlined North America, a fiercely loyal but very young audience, and a history of redesigns that nearly killed it. All of it wrapped up in nearly half a billion people still logging in every single day.
Snap is complicated. Snap is contradictory. And that is exactly why it is the right place to start.
🌍 469M daily active users and 1B monthly. Global growth is strong, North America is flat at ~100M.
👶 Gen Z fortress. Ninety percent of U.S. 13–24-year-olds use Snap, but usage falls off a cliff after 30.
✨ AR and video fuel stickiness. 250M people use AR daily, with more than 6B interactions. Spotlight now reaches 500M monthly users.
🏆 Brand proof. Motorola saw a seven-point awareness lift, Porter Airlines drove 13 percent more conversions with a $175 ROAS, and Coop Extra proved a 10 percent sales lift in stores.
🔄 Redesign drama. The 2018 disaster, 2024’s “Simple Snapchat,” and now yet another layout test.
Snapchat is not dead. It commands 469 million daily users and nearly a billion monthly. The average user checks in 40 times a day and spends close to 30 minutes snapping, chatting, and scrolling.
And here’s a fresh signal of that stickiness: Snap says users created well over one trillion selfie Snaps in 2024. For context, Apple noted that iPhone users took about 500 billion selfies in the same period. Not a perfect apples-to-apples (that Apple stat doesn’t cover Android), but it underscores how Snap’s camera, AR lenses, and chat loops drive uniquely high, personal engagement.
However, the catch with Snap is geography. Growth is happening abroad, not at home. India now leads with 200M users, while North America has flatlined at ~100M. The platform is alive and expanding, but not in the market where ad dollars stretch the furthest.
Snapchat remains the Gen Z clubhouse.
90% of U.S. 13–24-year-olds use it regularly.
But as soon as you creep above 30, the numbers start to crater. Only 30% of U.S. internet users aged 30–49 use the app, and adoption among Gen X and Boomers is in the single digits. Older millennials and Gen X? They’ve largely ghosted the ghost.
For brands, the implication is clear. If you want to reach under-30s and their $5 trillion in global spending power, Snap still matters. If you want families, SUV buyers, or retirement planners, this is not where you will find them.
The real stickiness on Snap comes from AR and video.
More than 250 million people use AR lenses daily, generating over 6 billion interactions.
Spotlight, Snap’s TikTok-like feed, now commands over 500 million monthly active users and accounts for 40%+ of all content time in-app. Some of us understand Snap to be the chat app with fun filters, but to many users, Snap is a legit short-form video player in the same way TikTok and Instagram are.
This makes Snap much more than a chat tool. It is a space where younger audiences experiment, play, and show off. Brands that meet them on those terms can still capture attention in a way that feels natural instead of intrusive.
Motorola: Building for Snap, Not Recycling Creative
Motorola built Snap-first creative designed specifically for Snap’s vertical, full-screen swipes to boost awareness for its new device. Branding hit early, the product was shown in hand, and the ad matched Snapchat’s quick-hit storytelling style. The result: a 7-point lift in brand awareness and an 8-point lift in ad awareness with strong video completion rates. Snap’s camera-first, immersive format earned the brand positive upper-funnel impact.
image credits: forbusiness.snapchat.com
Porter Airlines: Personalization at Scale with Dynamic Ads
Porter Airlines used Snap’s Dynamic Travel Ads, which automatically pulled in live fares and routes so every ad was personalized and timely. This was paired with video and AR units to spark discovery, then let dynamic product ads close the loop at checkout. The outcome: 13% more conversions, 37% lower cost per purchase, and a $175 ROAS. Snap’s edge here was automation + a mobile-first audience who actually plans trips in-app.
image credits: forbusiness.snapchat.com
Coop Extra: Proving Offline Sales with Geo-Lift
Norwegian retailer Coop Extra kept things simple: Snap Ads, Story Ads, and Commercials for a bread promo. But they measured impact using a geo-lift study, comparing test vs. control regions. Snapchat delivered a 10%+ lift in sales and a 2.2× ROI in just two weeks. By using Snap’s geo-targeting and frequency tools, Coop proved the platform can drive more than just clicks but real in-store purchases.
No story about Snapchat is complete without the redesign saga. In 2018, the company split friends from publishers, sparking a 1.2 million-signature petition. Kylie Jenner tweeted once, and $1.3 billion in market value vanished overnight. Snap lost 3 million daily users in a single quarter.
In 2024, the company tried again with a “Simple Snapchat” that reduced navigation to three tabs. The rollout was calmer, but by early 2025, cracks showed. North American daily active users slipped again, and heavy users complained about missing features. The latest experiment restores a five-tab structure and brings Snap Map back to prominence.
The pattern is familiar: stumble, listen, adjust, move forward. That willingness to course-correct is one of the reasons Snap is still here while so many others have vanished.
Snapchat in 2025 is full of contradictions. Growth abroad, stagnation at home. An essential platform for Gen Z, a graveyard for older audiences. A product that repeatedly gets lost, then finds its way back.
So is Snapchat still a thing?
If your target is under-30s, if you want AR-driven engagement, if you care about cultural influence, the answer is yes. The ghost has not vanished. It has simply found a new house to haunt. đź‘»