News media and marketers remain predominantly fixated on social media. True, social media usage keeps skyrocketing. However significant growth is coming from private social activity. This is people sending messages and multimedia directly to select individuals or groups of friends, rather than sharing everything publicly. Think Snapchat where messages even self-destruct.
While WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal may be on your radar, according to GrindSuccess there are at least 45 messaging startups in play right now. And, of the 14 most popular social media platforms, according to Global Web Index, five are private messaging apps; WhatsApp, WeChat, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and Telegram. Other notables include Kik and Line.
People using private messaging apps don’t want to be targeted and tracked. Marketers can’t monitor all their conversations. Snapchat is precisely the kind of platform where it was thought that the introduction of advertising would cause users to defect. In fact, its Gen Z users for the most part seem to be sticking with the app despite its introduction of ads.
As private social activity cannibalizes public social activity, marketers will have to find a way to stay relevant with these nearly invisible audiences. That might mean following the path of Snapchat… or coming up with alternative more creative strategies. And as a noteworthy demonstration of folks betting on the future importance of private messaging, and finding alternative means to reach these elusive users is Buzzfeed partnering with WeChat to distribute content. If chat app users embrace a private message + publisher content model then ad-supported content models are likely to follow.