Snapchat is a popular social media platform that is best known for its filters and disappearing messages. While it is not one of the most popular or well-known social media platforms in Canada, it is still used by over a quarter of Canadian adults.

In this article, we have collated the key statistics on Snapchat. Knowing the statistics can provide insights into user engagement with the platform, which can be useful information for businesses and marketers wanting to target a specific audience on Snapchat.

Snapchat Statistics for Canadians

  • Snapchat was launched in 2011 by three Stanford University students.
  • Approximately 12.25 million Canadians had a Snapchat account in July 2024.
  • Women (53%) are slightly more likely than men to have a Snapchat account in Canada.
  • Snapchat had around 800 million global users in early 2024.
  • India has the most Snapchat users in the world with 126 people using the platform.
  • The majority of Snapchat’s global users are between 18 and 24 years old.
  • According to Snapchat, over 5 billion snaps are created every day.
  • Snapchat users spend on average 31 minutes per day on the app.
  • 59% of Snapchat users access the platform at least once every day.
  • Snapchat users have a combined spending power of $4.4 trillion.

What is Snapchat?

Since many people will be more familiar with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, let’s begin with a brief look at what Snapchat is.

Snapchat is a social media platform that enables users to share videos and photos that disappear after a short period. The platform was created by Bobby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, and Reggie Brown when they were students at Stanford University. Snapchat launched in 2011.

The app, primarily designed for mobile devices, offers a variety of features including lenses, filters, and stickers that can be applied to photos and videos. You can find more information on Snapchat features below.

What Are the Features of Snapchat?

  • Creative features: The platform has a range of creative tools users can use to customise their content.
  • Messaging: The messaging feature of Snapchat offers a more personalised and private way to communicate than traditional social media. The messages used to disappear after a set period, but Snapchat has now removed the time limitations.
  • Discover section: This section features content from a range of media outlets, creators, and publishers, helping users stay up-to-date with trends, news, and popular culture.
  • Snap Map: Users can see the location of their friends on the Snap Map as well as their public snaps. Users can choose if they wish to share their location.
  • Snapchat was the first platform to allow users to post stories that disappeared after 24 hours. This feature was later copied by Instagram.
  • The Snapchat Memories feature was launched in 2016. It saves stories and reminds users of them a year later.
  • It also debuted augmented reality glasses in 2016. The Spectacles, as they were called, did not catch on with the public, but Snapchat has plans to play a part in the AR industry.
  • In June 2022, the company launched Snapchat+, which is a paid subscription plan and includes exclusive, pre-release, and experimental features. The number of paid subscribers exceeded one million within the first six weeks of the launch.

Snapchat in Canada

Snapchat is the eighth most popular social media app in Canada, with 31.5% of Canadians using the platform. This is equivalent to approximately 12.25 million Canadian Snapchat users in July 2024. The penetration rate has increased over 5% from 26.9% in 2022.

The most popular social media platform in Canada is Facebook with 80% of Canadian adults using it. Other social media platforms that are more popular than Snapchat in Canada include Instagram (51%), Twitter (40%), and Pinterest (36%).

27% of social media users say they use Snapchat more often than they use any other social media network, and 30.3% of Canadians visit Snapchat at least once every month. Younger Canadians, aged between 18 and 34 are the most likely people to use Snapchat in Canada. Women in Canada are slightly more likely to use the social media platform, making up 53.2% of Snapchat users in Canada.

Snapchat, The Worldwide Picture

While some Canadian entrepreneurs and businesses will be most interested in the Canadian numbers of Snapchat users, many may be looking to reach a wider, global audience and therefore interested in the global statistics of Snapchat.

Global User Numbers

According to Statista, Snapchat had 63 million users in 2014 and since then its numbers have been growing steadily even though it is still a long way from the user numbers of Instagram and Facebook. In February 2024, Snapchat had 800 million users and has overtaken the likes of X in popularity.

Facebook still dominates the social media world with 3.51 billion users, while Instagram has 1.21 billion users and TikTok reached one billion users in July 2022. Globally, as in Canada, women at 51% are slightly more likely to use Snapchat than men.

Snapchat Revenue

The revenue of Snapchat increased by 12% to USD 4.6 billion in 2022, which was its lowest recorded annual growth. Snapchat’s revenue was USD 0.05 billion in 2015 and by 2016, it had increased to USD 0.4 billion. It reached the one billion revenue mark in 2018.

Snapchat’s biggest annual revenue growth was from 2020 to 2021 when it grew from USD 2.5 billion to USD 4.1 billion. After the record growth period, its growth has slowed down again as it, so far at least, has not been able to capture the interest of older users who still prefer the likes of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Snapchat Users by Region

While North America has historically had the largest number of Snapchat users, this changed in 2021 when the rest of the world (excluding Europe) overtook North America in user numbers. This growth has largely been driven by Indian users. In 2022, there were 99 million users in North America, 86 million in Europe, and 162 million in the rest of the world.

As mentioned, the growth Snapchat has seen in the rest of the world has been largely due to users from India signing up for the platform. There are 126 million Snapchat users in India, representing 36% of all Snapchat users.

Snapchat Users by Age

Snapchat is most popular among people aged between 18 and 24 years of age. This age group represents 38.9% of Snapchat’s audience. The next biggest group is the 25-34-year-olds at 22.8% of the total audience. 20 of Snapchat users are 13 to 17 years old, 13.8% are 35 to 49 years old, and just 3.7% are 50 years or older.

Number of Snaps Created by Snapchat Users

Videos and pictures created on Snapchat all count as snaps. According to data from Snapchat, over 5 billion snaps are created every day. The company itself attributes this growth to the higher percentage of users who have newer Android devices. Users with newer devices are sending 7% more snaps than users with older versions of Android.

Number of Downloads

There were over 300 million downloads of Snapchat in 2020 and in 2021, it was the seventh most downloaded app following Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Zoom, Messenger, and TikTok. In August 2020, there were 28.5 million new Snapchat downloads, which was its single largest month of first-time downloads since May 2019 when there were 41.2 million new installs.

The majority of Snapchat downloads came from Google Play with Google Play users downloading the app five times more than Apple’s App Store users. While on Google Play, Snapchat was the fifth-most downloaded app, it did not feature in the top twenty on the App Store downloads.

Time Users Spend on Snapchat

On average, Snapchat users spend 31 minutes per day on the app. Users aged 13-24 spend the longest time using Snapchat each day. Snapchat users are often highly active in sharing pictures and videos and engaging with other users frequently.

Snapchat estimates that the average active Snapchat user accesses the camera on Snapchat over twenty times a day.

Main Reasons for Using Snapchat

The main reason Snapchat users access the platform is to be social and talk to friends, followed by sharing their photos and videos and playing around with the filters and lenses. In contrast, Twitter users are more interested in keeping up with current events, while YouTube users are most likely to access the platform to learn about topics of interest.

Percentage of Daily Users

While Snapchat may not yet compete in the total number of users with the likes of Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook, it competes with them in the percentage of users who access the platform daily. 59% of Snapchat users access the platform at least once a day, which puts it on par with Instagram.

Facebook has the highest number of users who access the platform daily at 70%. However, Snapchat users access the platform more regularly than, for example, Twitter and YouTube users where 46% and 54% of users access the platforms at least once per day.

Number of People Who Engage With Augmented Reality on Snapchat

Augmented reality is one of the main attractions of the platform and around 250 million users engage with augmented reality on Snapchat every day. Augmented reality features accessible to users include a range of lenses and filters.

Statistics for Advertisers and Marketers

While Snapchat is not the first platform that most people would think of for advertising, it can still be a useful tool. Here are some important statistics on Snapchat users’ habits that marketers and advertisers can utilize to increase their reach and impact.

  • Advertisers can use Snapchat to reach approximately 27.9% of Canadians.
  • It is important to consider the audio of the video since 64% of adverts on Snapchat are viewed with sound on.
  • The first few seconds are key to capturing your audience, especially those of the Gen Z generation. 55% of Gen Z can recall an advert after watching less than two seconds of it.
  • Snapchat’s estimated revenue from advertising was $2.62 billion in 2021. Brands can begin advertising on Snapchat for just $5.
  • Snapchat users have a combined spending power of $4.4 trillion. Most of this comes from North America and Europe with $1.9 trillion and $1.05 trillion respectively.
  • 39% of Snapchat users consult their friends and family using Snapchat before making purchases. In addition, 35% of users will share snaps with others while browsing.
  • 65% of Snapchat users will post in their stories when they have made a purchase, offering brands a great way to drive more sales organically.
  • Over 300 million Snapchatters use the Snap Map every month, which is great for the discoverability of a business.

Conclusion

While the number of Canadian or global users of Snapchat is a lot lower than, for example, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, it is a growing platform. Historically, most of the platform’s users have come from North America and Europe, but in recent years people from other parts of the world have been signing up for the platform in large numbers and India now has the largest percentage of Snapchat users across the world.

With Snapchat users spending an average of 31 minutes per day on the app and are among the most active social media users, the platform offers a lot of potential to advertisers and marketers. Especially, considering the $4.4 trillion combined spending power of Snapchat users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Snapchat restricts the use of its platform to those who are at least 13 years old. This applies in Canada, too.

There are approximately 10.3 million Snapchat users in Canada.

While Snapchat is not the first choice for many businesses and brands who want to advertise their services or products using social media, Snapchat is used by businesses and offers a lot of potential as a growing platform.