The Competition 
Snapchat (SNAP) is a social media company that allows its users to socialize with a combination of pictures, videos, and captions. It entered the social media industry in 2011 – seven years after Facebook (FB) and 5 years after Twitter (TWTR) were created. Facebook was already overpowering Myspace and became more powerful when they purchased Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion dollars. The main point is that Instagram and Facebook have tremendous leverage over Snapchat at the moment because of their popularity and user rate. Instagram even copied Snapchat’s story feature which has critically slowed the user growth rate of Snapchat.
Snapchat’s stock is not only struggling because they’re failing to grasp the attention of many investors. They are now undergoing a lawsuit until July 17, 2017, for anyone with losses over $500,000. The lawsuit is similar to the one GoPro (GPRO) experienced in 2016 for anyone with losses over $100,000. Whenever the article for this lawsuit appeared in GoPro’s news section, it would get pummeled down and restrict the stock from increasing. Snapchat is also spending money on new features to improve its company.
How Is Snapchat Staying Afloat?
Although Snapchat’s stock price is struggling to remain above $20 because of its main competitors and its ubiquitous features. They are still trying to come out with new features like the snap map, which gives users the choice to share their location with the people that follow them. Investors are also intrigued by Snapchat getting into the drone industry, which can either help its stock go to the next level or bring it down even further if the product is bad. Another new feature released by the social media company is Snapchat geo filter.
Users can now pay to customize their very own filters with a new feature Snapchat came out with, called Snapchat geo filter. The customizable filter can be used for events or fun, but it charges based on the size of the area you arranged. After you set up your very own filter, it can be used by anyone around your geographical setting. It’s difficult to determine where this new feature will take the company, but all I know is that people prefer free.
Thank you for reading this article. I will follow up with my technical analysis on this company. Please feel free to leave a comment or response below.