Snapchat revamp may affect business, company 'willing to risk'

In a major revamp to regain its old user base, Snapchat has introduced a host of new features, which, the company claims, has the potential to drastically affect its business.

While the app has garnered popularity among the masses, many users have raised issues about some of the features being overly complicated or flawed, and have subsequently moved on to the rival apps. However, the company, in its latest earnings call, warned investors to be prepared for any disruption faced during the app's revamp.

"One thing that we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, and our team has been working on responding to this feedback. As a result, we are currently redesigning our application to make it easier to use. There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don't yet know how the behaviour of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application. We're willing to take that risk for what we believe are substantial long term benefits to our business," said Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel during its earning call, as quoted by The Independent.

While the revamp announcement has been made, the renewed look of Snapchat remains uncertain.

Last week, Snapchat introduced a new snack-based "For the Bold" face lens, where a user's face changes from a kitten to a tiger when he/she opens mouth to take that bite of nacho. This new 24-hour face lens was part of Snapchat's collaboration with Doritos, an American brand of flavoured nacho chips.

On a related note, over 170 million people use Snapchat globally every day to Snap with family and friends, watch stories, and explore content from top publishers and around the world.

It is said that the average Snapchat daily user visits the app twenty times a day, and daily users spend an average of over 30 minutes every day.