In 2011, when Snapchat was launched, users thought a photo sharing revolution was in the offing. It became the app of the moment, letting users live in the moment, with no permanent record of the pictures, unless one took a screenshot and made extra efforts to store the image. However, things didn’t work the way they were supposed to, neither for Snapchat nor for the users. A couple of years post its iconic launch, Snapchat started failing miserably. While Instagram was gaining momentum, Snapchat’s users started declining and experienced a massive downfall, becoming a cautionary tale rather than a revolutionary story. The question on everyone’s mind here is, what really happened to Snapchat to make it fail so miserably?
The rise of Snapchat
A mere 3 years after its launch, Snapchat’s rise was exponential, to say the least. The photo sharing app quickly got over a 100 million users in its first few years and between 2015 and 2016, Snapchat had more than doubled its users, falling a little shy of 300 million on a daily basis. With numbers increasing faster than any other social media platform at the time, Snapchat’s rise to success made it obvious this was not just a fad, but a lasting movement.
What made the rise so impressive was that Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat and his team even started monetizing the app in creative ways. From acting as a platform that made the concept of influencers popular to convincing brands and celebrities alike that vertical videos were the next big thing, Snapchat was on the path to becoming a brand new trendsetter. To make sharing on this app all the more exciting, Snapchat introduced geofilters and started playing around with celebrity stories and creative placement of banners, monetization through this app was at an all time high. Users were happy, advertisers were happy and the core Snapchat team was ecstatic. Everything was falling in place perfectly.
The rise to fall of Snapchat
Spiegel, as a CEO, was extremely effective. He knew what his core audience wanted and knew how to deliver the right things at the right time. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the resolve to see the bigger picture. One of the primary things which went wrong for Snapchat was they didn’t see the growth was necessary because it needed to be more than what people were doing. Spiegel refused to see beyond the data and to think beyond what was already there.
At the time Snapchat started falling, Facebook and Instagram were doing wonders. Facebook had switched their profile to timelines even before users wanted it and Instagram was upping its filter game every day. In fact, when Instagram launched its new “stories” feature (very similar to Snapchat’s existing format) in 2016, the move was in sync with Snapchat’s immediate fall.
What came as the final kick in Snapchat’s rear end was when Instagram its stories game by letting users add hashtags, geofilters, screen bursts and GIFs! Snapchat is failing to keep up the pace with the growing trends. Its revenues in the third quarter in the last fiscal have fallen by 18 %, with its users falling, instead of increasing. Every other social media app that has aped this app’s USP (Facebook and Instagram) is doing exceptionally well, essentially leaving this particular app in the dust.
Despite its very obvious decline into major disarray, Snapchat is trying to make a much needed change. Spiegel and his team are finally trying to create an interface usable not just by the younger generation, but by people above the age of 35 as well. Where is Snapchat’s future? Is it in the hands of really annoyed influencers (Rihanna, Chris Brown, Kylie Jenner) or will the team of Snapchat finally realise where the true future of Snapchat lies? What do you think is going to be Snapchat’s future? Comment and let us know!
MobiKwik is venturing into the stock broking sector with the launch of its subsidiary, MobiKwik Securities Broking Private Limited (MSBPL), following approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on March 3, 2025. This move aims to diversify MobiKwik’s offerings beyond its core digital payments services and compete with established players like Zerodha and Groww.
MSBPL will provide a range of brokerage services, including trading in shares, securities, commodities, and derivatives. The subsidiary has an initial capital of Rs 1 lakh, with plans for an additional Rs 2 crore investment to support its operations.
As MobiKwik enters this competitive market, it brings a substantial user base of 172 million and a merchant network of 5 million. Despite recent financial challenges, including a reported loss of Rs 55.2 crore in Q3 FY25, the company aims to leverage its existing infrastructure and user engagement to capture a share of the growing investment technology market, projected to reach $74 billion by 2030.
This strategic expansion aligns with MobiKwik’s broader goals of enhancing its financial service
Nazara Technologies has sold its entire 71.54% stake in Sports Unity Private Limited, the company behind the multiplayer quiz game ‘Qunami’, for INR 7.15 lakh. This divestment, effective March 25, 2025, signifies a strategic shift for Nazara, which had previously acquired a controlling interest in Sports Unity in 2019 for INR 7.5 crore.
The decision to offload the stake comes as Sports Unity has faced financial difficulties, reporting no active business operations and a negative net worth of INR 0.45 crore at the end of FY24. This move aligns with Nazara’s broader strategy to streamline its operations and concentrate on more profitable ventures within the gaming sector.
This sale follows Nazara’s recent divestment of a 94.85% stake in another subsidiary, Open Play, to Moonshine Technologies for INR 104.33 crore. Despite reporting record quarterly revenue of INR 544.7 crore in Q3 FY25, Nazara experienced a 53.5% decline in net profit year-over-year.
Nazara continues to focus on enhancing its portfolio through strategic acquisitions and investments in high-potential gaming platforms while navigating the competitive landscape of the gaming industry.
Hypergro.ai, a Bengaluru-based marketing technology startup, has raised Rs 7 crore in seed funding led by Silverneedle Ventures, with participation from Huddle, TDV Partners, HME Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, FiiRE, and angel investors. Founded in 2022 by Rituraj Biswas, Neha Soman, Abhijeet Kumar, and Arijit Mukhopadhyay, the company aims to revolutionize digital marketing by addressing challenges like high Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and low Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
The startup leverages AI to create hyper-personalized video ads using user-generated content (UGC). The fresh capital will be used to enhance Hypergro.ai’s AI capabilities, expand operations, and build a specialized team focusing on data analysis, predictive algorithms, and automation.
Since its inception, Hypergro.ai has collaborated with over 70 brands, including several from Shark Tank India. The company’s innovative approach has led to its selection for Google’s Startups Accelerator: AI First (India) program in July 2024, providing access to critical training, mentorship, and state-of-the-art AI tools.
Hypergro.ai’s platform now supports a community of over 300,000 creators across India and has partnered with more than 100 brands, significantly enhancing its AI model’s accuracy and improving revenue generation for clients. As it continues to expand and refine its AI-powered marketing solutions, Hypergro.ai is set to transform the digital advertising landscape, offering businesses more effective and efficient customer acquisition and engagement strategies.