Jackie and Claudia Oshry chime in after Kylie Jenner single-handedly disrupts Snapchat stocks
Snapchat is currently recuperating after a financial hiccup at the hands of Kylie Jenner‘s Twitter account. After the new mom took to Twitter with a question about a Snapchat update, the newly publicly traded company suffered a $1.3 billion loss upon market closing Thursday night.
The injurious question? Jenner inquired, “sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.” And cue the trades.
Although Stormi Webster‘s mom played a role in the billion-dollar stock deficit, Snapchat is not off the hook for its lack of user appreciation and basic listening skills. Ignoring the influx of complaints from longtime users and social media influencers, like Girl With No Job, Snapchat has sent a clear message regarding update grievances — it doesn’t care.
“Not that Snapchat’s necessarily dying, but it’s definitely going that way,” explains Claudia Oshry during an appearance on Yahoo Finance. “They’re definitely not listening to users at all. I think the biggest difference between them and Instagram is when we’re unhappy with something on Instagram, overnight it’s changed.”
Oshry, along with her sister Jackie (@JackieOProblems) co-hosts The Morning Breath, a live Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube talk show five days a week. The sisters are in tune with successful social media reach, and Snapchat is not making the cut as far as long-term user experience goes. You’ll notice the obsolete app is missing from the list of offered platforms, because even with all the changes it’s making, Snapchat is as inaccessible as ever.
“Snapchat can’t be bothered with what their users have to say preference-wise, so it’s frustrating as a user,” Claudia explains to Yahoo’s finance team.
But is it willing to change? The update has been in effect for nearly a month, and while some influencers on the Discover page are likely to increase viewership on rare occasions, the numbers are unpredictable and stories aren’t hitting the intended demographics. Subscribers are losing their favorite celebs in the shuffle of Discover, while others are forced to scroll through stories they do not care about.
“I think they’ll have to [change], because people are flocking and Instagram Stories has everything that Snapchat used to provide. There’s nothing that Snapchat has now that’s really proprietary,” Jackie predicts.
Unlike with updates past, users can’t let Snapchat’s passive change of utility just slide. When Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram change, the early resentment is soon forgotten and users move on. Social media users are nothing if not resilient and willing to adapt — except right now.
“Facebook is just generally well liked. You’ll always need a Facebook. Now you don’t need a Snapchat,” Claudia explains. “There’s no utility for it. We were hating it before, and now this is just making us hate it even more.”
While we’re not reading Snapchat’s obituary just yet, a major revamp is in order if the app is hoping for any kind of resuscitation. Its potential was so promising for so long, and now its fate is on shaky ground.
Jackie predicts its future as antiquated, concluding, “I think [Snapchat will] always be popular as a messaging app and people sending one-to-one messages, but as far as being an overall social platform and really a big giant in the space it was coming up as, I think those days are numbered.”