With the new Snap map, it seems like Snap is trying to build out a real-time location platform for events and people, like Waze did for traffic. Heatmap physical engagement / sentiment, on B2B side sell it to venues, retail, etc as BI, and on B2C juice targeted ads with locations / events / activities you engage with digitally on the map... maybe even add in-app, on-map purchase of tickets, goods, etc to grab a cut. I assume any major new features of Snapchat are laser focused on monetization to get profitability sometime soon.
I actually really love this feature! It's something that I feel like Instagram should've had for a long time since they've had geotagging for years now. But Snap is first yet again, and I'm sure Facebook is already hard at work copying this feature
To clarify, I think the feature is cool, just trying to speculate on the strategy; there's always a plan ticking in the background.
This is an amazing feature that I could myself wasting hours of my life using.
Gotta say, they are coming up with really innovative features to please their teenager crowd who don't even have enough money to spend converting those ads.
the feature looks cool. I wonder why the YouTube video got so much hate
Only Snapchat and Instagram have the user bases to support a social heatmap that requires such highly frequent generated location-based content. Good job snap! However, Snap is playing this feature well to its advantage on the difference in their user networks. When you look at Instagram - the majority of content is typically from social influencers/famous people (who would never share their location live on a map because they don't want to be creeped on by their thousands/millions of fans). Snap on the other hand has kept the social network circles of their users to more close-knit connections (close friends, family, etc). Users have less of a problem sharing their location in closer networks. Also, a good portion of Instagram accounts are private - Snap added "Our Story" function to enable snaps to go public, how will Instagram tackle this if it is to follow suit and make a more prominent dedicated Maps feature of its own? As for monetization for Maps, it's pretty good to look at how Pokémon Go has so successfully monetized geolocations. Snap Map can have sponsored promotions from local businesses or events show up on the map. This also plays into how Snap is trying to better track down how it's ads can drive foot traffic to stores. If they can better prove that their ads are driving customers to stores, that's solving a huge industry challenge and will in turn lead to much more ad $. The key for snap here is the theory that their user networks of close friends have a stronger influence on each other in terms of driving sentiment towards advertised products/events/businesses. Snap has to capitalize on this
Very cool feature. I secretly wish I joined snap when I had the chance.