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Cheetah Mobile, the Chinese app developer, just released its own insights on the rise of Snapchat and it’s got a surprisingly different perspective. According to Cheetah, 2017 is the “age of Snapchat”. The prediction can be attributed due to Snapchat gaining in popularity among advertisers as well as its precise targeting capabilities. Let’s have a closer look at Cheetah Mobile’s findings.

The UK digital advertising market is currently dominated by Google and Facebook. According to eMarketer, Google dominates the UK digital ad market at a 41.8% share. Facebook holds a 14.3% slice of the pie.

Despite these figures, Cheetah Mobile believes that Snapchat could be the next advertising giant in Europe. The company announced 10 million active daily users in the UK during Advertising Week Europe and featured heavily across panel discussions. People are obviously talking about Snapchat.

Cheetah Mobile’s own data shows that the app ranks among the top three social apps in the UK, Germany and France. The French even prefer Snapchat over Instagram.

Snapchat has also boosted its advertising profile by expanding its range of services and products. Being able to target millennials is a key attraction for many marketers. According to Nielsen, 51% of Snapchat users are below the age of 24 compared to just 23% on Facebook. That has prompted Cheetah Mobile to consider Snapchat to become the third largest digital advertiser.

Format may be a key driver for Snapchat’s growth. Research from the Hochschule Duesseldorf, Germany, compiled by eMarketer, has previously found that Snapchat users find sponsored lenses and geofilter advertising formats far less annoying than traditional Snap ads. That’s an interesting finding and should give Snapchat the confidence to continue to develop its more creative ad formats.

Cheetah Mobile says:

“We believe that one of the reasons why Snapchat is considered a rising star in mobile advertising is that the company gives brands an opportunity to showcase more innovative advertising on mobile phones, creating ads that are more fun for younger users and put them in less passive roles. These ads are more customizable, and advertisers know that their ads will only be shown to users interested in them, so they need not worry that their ads will show up in inappropriate places. This danger, the issue of brand safety, is one of the main reasons why ad giant Google has recently been the subject of broad criticism.”

For advertisers, Snapchat may present a welcome change from Google and Facebook and help reach a very well defined audience. Whether it can catch up to take a considerable market share of the digital advertising market remains to be seen.

Originally shared on Mobyaffiliates by Anne Freier.

Rioks, an outsource model marketing consultancy, is a certified partner for digital advertising services with the biggest players in the industry.

Oleksiy Kuryliak

Founder of Rioks. Marketing Strategist & Auditor. Advising startups and enterprises on digital transformation, marketing operations and go-to-market strategies.