Trending Up: Snapchat Passes Twitter in Daily Users – Digital Trends
Snapchat has increased its daily users to more than 150 million, moving the mobile app ahead of Twitter, which has 140 million daily users, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the daily numbers.
According to leaked numbers obtained by Tech Crunch, Snapchat had around 110 million users daily in December, pointing to a 30 million daily user increase in just six months time. It’s an impressive feat for the four-year-old visual messenger app, with many attributing the explosion in usage to its increasing popularity with young people — who communicate primarily through their mobile devices.
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey acknowledged on Wednesday at Recode’s technology conference that Twitter has struggled of late with user experience issues, something that the social media firm “has been working on.” He noted that Snapchat is a “very modern” messaging experience.
Snapchat launched four years ago, gaining popularity thanks to the novelty of picture messaging that expired after a time frame determined by users. Since then, it has become a primary communication channel for anyone younger than 23 with a mobile device.
The significance of passing an industry veteran like Twitter in daily users should not be overlooked, and could point to much wider adoption among mobile users in general — not just app-crazed teens and young adults. It happened with Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter — once a network championed by young people starts to catch on with the general population, growth can come fast and seem uncontrollable.
Snapchat’s increase in daily users by more than 30 million in six months shows growth is trending up — but where the app’s ceiling is at this point is anyone’s guess.
More than 73 million user records stolen from across a number of online services are being offered for sale on the dark web by hacker group ShinyHunters, according to ZDNet.
Affected services include online dating app Zoosk (30 million user records), printing service Chatbooks (15 million), food delivery service Home Chef (8 million), online marketplace Minted (5 million), and U.S. news site Star Tribune (1 million).
Twitter now removes half of tweets containing abusive content automatically without relying on content moderators or users reporting them.
The social media platform’s 2019 third quarter report revealed that 50% of those tweets that were removed due to abusive content were done so through improvements in machine learning.
Twitter’s experimental “Twttr” app is looking like a hit among those trying it out.
The social media company released the app a month ago as a way of testing new features with regular Twitter users. Participants’ feedback will have a big influence on Twitter’s usability as Twttr’s more popular innovations will transfer to the main app.
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