Snapchat Sees Light With 45% Growth in Viewership for its First Original Series

Nicolette Acosta
Aug 8, 2017 · 3 min read

Although Snapchat’s latest share numbers are at a record low, $12.73 per share, the company has hit a break through — the success of its first original series, “Good Luck America.” Currently in its second season, the politically focused show follows Snapchat’s Head of News and longtime CNN journalist Peter Hamby through America, and often depicts interviews with major media and political players including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry, and Joe Biden. The series has grown by an astounding 45% in its current season with 29 million unique views.

It should be noted that these numbers cannot be directly compared to TV statistics due to Snapchat measuring views by the number of times a post is opened, however the viewership increase is impressive nonetheless. It gives spectacular insight into the global shift of information gathering means. With almost 75% of “Good Luck America’s” audience being under 25 and over 90% of it being under 35, it’s blatantly clear that millennials’ first choice news source is through social media.

The platform’s other show numbers are also far from shabby with Vertical Networks’ “Phone Swap” averaging 11.4 million viewers per episode and E!’s “The Rundown” averaging between nearly 8 -10 million viewers per individual episode. Non-Snapchat created content is also pulling huge numbers in Discovery with “Shark Week” attracting 12 million viewers to watch on the app. These statistics may inspire Snap CEO Evan Spiegel to focus more on original content as Instagram Stories dominates what was once Snapchat’s domain.

Another successful blow for the company came with Facebook’s announcement that they would be shutting down “Lifestage”. Many might be asking themselves what Lifestage was, which should give the impression of how much success it had. The Snapchat-clone was a service only offered to users 21 or younger, which proved impossible to monitor, and the app’s content was always public to those in the user’s network. Though a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement that the company would “continue to incorporate these learning’s into features in the main Facebook app.”

Exactly how Facebook’s failure and “Good Luck America’s” success will affect the Snapchat stock remains to be seen. However the market will know more this coming Thursday when the company’s latest report earnings are made public.

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