We are private by design, a medium for communication between close friends: Snapchat

Photo-messaging app Snapchat on Tuesday said the platform is "private by design" and unlike other social media outlets, its focus is on providing a medium for communication between a close group of friends.

Durgesh Kaushik, Head of India Market Development, Snap, said that social media seems to now centre around adding people to friend lists and getting likes.

"The way we are positioning ourselves is as a communication platform. We are private by design... the ephemerality (of content) kind of extends that whole philosophy around making it private by design... We are educating the market about how different we are. That is the real focus now," he added.

Snap is the parent company of Snapchat. The app allows users to share photos with friends for 24 hours after which, the content disappears.

While Kaushik did not comment on Snapchat's user-base in India, he said the platform is gaining popularity among users in India. Globally, over 180 million people use the app daily.

He said the company is also focussing on localised content, has partnered local players like Logical Indian and TVF, and is also engaging with different communities.

"We recently announced our partnership with JioSaavn, which is our Snap Kit integration. Snap Kit is basically a platform to let other developers tap into the network of Snapchat and access the capabilities and features of Snapchat, like AR (augment reality) experiences. We are developing partnerships around Snapkit and engaging with local communities," he said.

Kaushik also spoke of a global study conducted by Snap to explore how culture, age and technology shapes preferences and attitudes around friendship.

"We found that Indians have, on an average, six best friends. Only Saudi Arabians have more with 6.6, while the UK ranks the lowest with an average of only 2.6. Interestingly, not only do people in India have more friends overall, they also want more -- with 45 percent respondents indicating they would like to expand their social circle," Kaushik said.

The report also showed that almost two-thirds of the respondents in India considered honesty an important trait to have in a friend.

"This does vary slightly by generation, however, being valued most by older generations (73 percent) and least by Gen Z (60 percent), who also value humour and lightheartedness (47 percent) -- the highest of any generation," he said.

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