Snapchat overtakes Twitter in daily usage

Snapchat has overtaken Twitter in daily usage and is racking up 150m active users a day compared to Twitter's 140m, says Bloomberg.

Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the four-year-old app, that enables users to communicate using images and short videos, had achieved 110m daily users by December 2015 and that figure had grown to 150m six months later.

Snapchat is hugely popular among teens and young millennials, in part due to its image manipulation software which allows users to swap faces in a photo, add quirky filters (a feature which is now a revenue source), and transform themselves into puppies or so-called "barf rainbows" (among others), as well as to create short videos. It also enables users to communicate with a closed group of friends, rather than having content made public, and encourages regular use by showing how frequently users are interacting with their friends.

Burberry previewed LFW show on Snapchat

However brands, and others, can use the app to share news, photos and other content which disappears after 24 hours, making it a perfect platform for exclusive previews. Burberry, for instance, showcased its entire London Fashion Week show on the app 24 hours in advance last September.

Twitter has been struggling to gain growth lately. The micro blogging site is still immensely popular but is losing ground to more visually compelling and creative social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. Twitter revealed in its latest earnings report that it has 310m monthly active users; it does not disclose how many of those people use the service daily, but a Bloomberg survey of analysts estimates this to be around 140m.

Masquerade: acquired by Facebook

Facebook, which owns Instagram, is looking to muscle in on Snapchat's turf and recently acquired an app called Masquerade, which allows users to manipulate images in a similar way to those on Snapchat. it is expected to incorporate some of the functionality into the Facebook platform in future.

Instagram's new business tools

Instagram, meanwhile, has just unveiled a suite of tools designed to make it easier to business on the photo sharing app. By the end of the year users will be able to convert accounts to business profiles which will have contact us features, usage insights and ad creation features.