2020-03-01_Fast_Company

its Android app so it could run better on

the 85% of phones in the world that aren’t

the iPhone, and simplified its tools for ad

buying, helping it boost revenue year over

year by 65% and add 31 million daily us-

ers to the platform in 2019. As investors

caught on, Snap’s stock price rose almost

250% last year. Although the company is

still losing money, Snapchat is poised for

international growth. “I’m now rooting

for Snap,” Galloway wrote in January after

admitting he’d been wrong. “Snap is on the

verge of writing its own ‘Cinderella story,’ ”

wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Michael

Nathanson last summer.

Snap is now ushering in the next wave of

computing. While tech giants hope to make

augmented reality mainstream within a

decade, Snap has already made the software

commonplace. On average, more than 75%

of Snapchat’s 218 million daily users play

with its AR “lenses” every day. That’s more

than 163 million people putting silly digital

effects like biker beards and puppy ears on

their faces. Last year, the company expanded

its AR purview even further, turning its at-

tention to augmenting the world around

users rather than just their faces, with lenses

that can transform buildings into giant piz-

zas and products into shoppable pages.

Snap has also constructed a formidable

premium content business on its Discover

platform, which functions like a mini,

mobile-optimized Netflix, with five-minute-

long shows that users can subscribe to and

binge on. There are now more than 450

channels of content worldwide, and in the

fourth quarter of 2019, more than 50 shows

had a monthly audience of over 10 million

people. The first season of one of its teen-

oriented scripted shows, Endless Summer,

produced by the company behind The Real

World and Keeping Up With the Kardashians,

racked up 28 million viewers.

“I don’t have to feel trapped by the way

everyone else [operates],” says Spiegel. He

could build Snap to function in the way

that worked best for what he wanted to ac-

complish. “We can try new things.”

Spiegel, I realize, isn’t sick. He’s Santa

Monica sick. He’s drink-the-right-concoction-of-

cold-pressed-juices sick. He’s pre-thirties sick.

So, you know, invincible.

Original Series

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020

Snapchat has long separated “social” from “media,” but now it’s

integrating the two—and things are about to get wild.

SNAP TAKES TV

38 FASTCOMPANY.COM ILLUSTRATION BY GINKO YANG

First Move

Eighteen

shows have

debuted

since fall

2018—a mix

of fiction and

reality—all

targeting

Snap’s ad-

desirable

13-to-

24-year-old

audience.

First Move

Snapchat

introduced

Our Story

in 2014 to

collate videos

people share

from events

such as music

festivals. It’s

grown to

include shows

such as

10-Second

Talents.

Bitmoji

Crowdsourced Series

First Move

In 2014,

Snap bought

the company

behind

Bitmoji, which

allows users

to make a

cartoon

representa-

tion of

themselves

to aid their

communica-

tions.

Breakout

Hit

The Dead

Girls Detec-

tive Agency

(1), about a

group of

ghosts solv-

ing murder

mysteries, is

on its fourth

season.

Breakout

Hit

Best of

College (2)

offers a

revealing

peek at

campus life, a

compilation

of the geo-

fenced ver-

sions that

Snap offers

students at

specific

campuses.

Breakout

Hit

Bitmoji Stories

combines a

user’s avatars

with those

of Snapchat

friends to

produce silly

comic-strip-

style jokes.

What’s Next

New series

are in the

works that

will invite

viewers

to play

along with

the activity

in the show

in order

to keep

watching.

What’s Next

Snap is

opening

international

offices in key

markets such

as India to

get closer to

local audi-

ences and

tailor shows

to them.

What’s Next

Bitmoji TV (3)

takes Stories

one step

further, add-

ing full ani-

mation and

integrating

a user and

her friends

into the

action.

MARCH/APRIL 2020

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