It seems as if social media player Snapchat is having a run of bad luck lately, with stocks plunging after implementing another unpopular redesign of their phone application. This news comes only a few months after an earlier redesign that frustrated users with its big changes in aesthetic style and usability.
The company’s trading identity; SNAP closed having dropped 7%, which places the stock price 15% lower than what it was when they started publicly trading in 2017.
In 2017 Snapchat altered the application so that it would differentiate between personal contacts and celebrity accounts. A big chunk of fans rebelled against this decision, and so did Wall Street.
These most recent changes seem to backtrack several of the major design changes we saw last year. On the same page users can now see posts from friends, celebrities and other social media influencers.
A Snapchat spokesperson when asked about the most recent changes gave a typical answer, saying that Snapchat was “always listening to our community” and that they will “continue to test updates”.
Whether or not celebrities embrace new design changes and new social media apps seems to have a measurable effect on their stock price. Most notably, Kylie Jenner called the original redesign “so sad” which caused the stock price to fall.
As recently as March the company was attacked by pop superstar Rhianna for an ad that appeared to make light of her 2009 assault by then boyfriend Chris Brown. It seems Snapchat needs to prioritize its appeal to major celebrities in order to retain its peak audience.
