Social Media is no less than a powerful weapon in today’s world. It is a technology that is computer-based and makes sharing of thoughts and ideas super easy through the building of communities and virtual networks all over the world.
Social media has grown drastically in recent years. There are more than 3 billion people in the world today who use social media. People prefer social media for business and advertising also. Social media users are usually millennials and teenagers.
When people engage in sharing information, ideas, thoughts and emotions in social media, they automatically become a part of a virtual social network. There are a number of social media platforms introduced today. Some are better than others. They contain a wide range of features that attract the users towards them. Most of the engaging content, reviews, documents, photos, videos etc. are shared daily through these platforms.
Snapchat and Facebook are two of the famous social media platforms present today. Both have been equally successful in the world of social networking.
Snapchat vs Facebook
The difference between Snapchat and Facebook is that Snapchat is a much more private app as compared to Facebook, which remains more of a public app.
Comparison Table Between Snapchat and Facebook
|Parameter of Comparison||Snapchat|
|Users||Snapchat has about 230 million daily active users.||While Facebook has more than a billion active users daily.|
|Content type||It is generally involved in ephemeral content, i.e., the snaps last for 24 hours only.||It has permanent posts and also stories that last up to 24 hours.|
|Authenticity||It has been a combination of creative, ephemeral and virtual content which is quite authentic.||It has been authentic as well, but now it is moving towards a more mature status.|
|Fun factor||There are several filters and lenses present and Snapchat keeps on introducing new ones which just adds to the fun factor further.||It has become more of an informative platform now, rather than something that is fun to use.|
|Video views||It counts more than 10 billion video views daily.||Whereas, it counts around 8 billion video views daily.|
|Chatbots||Snapchat has no such feature introduced till now.||Facebook has the feature of Chatbots in its Messenger, which are pre-programmed messages that have information.|
|Advertising||It is new to the field of advertising.||It has established itself in advertising.|
What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is an American social media platform introduced and developed by Snapchat Inc. in September 2011. Originally, it was created by three former students at Stanford University; Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown.
It is a multimedia messaging app which allows sharing messages and media files that are available for a short time. It has a feature of “Stories” which allows users to add any photo or video as per their wish that lasts up to 24 hours. “Discover” feature lets brands show ad-supported contents in short form. Another feature “my eyes only” lets the users keep photos in a private password-protected space.
At present, Snapchat is said to have about 230 million active users daily. More than 4 billion Snaps are sent each day on average. This app has got to be very popular among the early-teenagers and in turn, has led to many privacy concerns.
Unfortunately, Snapchat has given rise to some very considerable threats to society. The younger generation tends to shift towards Snapchat more due to its unique feature that erases messages sometime after they have been sent, which provides the users with a higher level of privacy. But this has steered some extremely unavoidable situations that terribly affect the young people.
What is Facebook?
Facebook is a technology developed in Menlo Park, California. It was originally founded as TheFacebook.com by Mark Zuckerberg, along with some students at Harvard College; Chris Hughes, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz on February 4, 2004.
Today, Facebook is counted among the top 5 companies in the IT industry of the United States. Besides being a social media platform itself, it has acquired some of the other platforms including WhatsApp, Instagram, Giphy, Mapillary and Oculus VR.
According to the recent reports, Facebook has surpassed the mark of having a billion active users daily. It is much more involved in providing recent updates regarding anything. Also, in Business Marketing and Advertising sector, Facebook has emerged as a successful player. It helps in adding value to the community, unlike Snapchat which adds value among followers and friends.
Facebook has evolved to be the most popular social networking platform over time. The need to belong and the need for self-presentation are the two factors which have led to a huge increase in the use of Facebook. Day by day, more and more adults seem to be joining Facebook and teenagers seem to be losing interest in it.
Main Differences Between Snapchat and Facebook
- Facebook has more number of daily active users as compared to Snapchat.
- Snap chat focuses more on ephemeral content, while Facebook focuses more on providing information.
- Facebook seems to be lacking the fun factor in recent times which Snapchat has kept intact.
- Chatbots feature is only available on Facebook, and not in Snapchat.
- Facebook has more involvement in the business and advertising sector as compared to Snapchat.
It would not be wrong to say that, we have become extremely dependent on social networking for everything including communication, sharing and receiving information and entertainment. No doubt, it has given rise to many menaces to society. It seems more of a bane than a boon.
The power of social media allows anyone to reach millions of people at the same time through content or post (as said on Facebook and Snapchat). Companies engage in social media platforms to connect with customers, advertising and promotion. Some use it for simple communication and others use it to provide career opportunities.
Overall, Social media has become a never-ending part of our life which has many roles to play. May it be Facebook or Snapchat, each one has unique features with which it attracts the audience. Only time can tell, what consequences this may lead to!
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