This year, 14.5 million people in the UK will use Snapchat, down 2.3% from last year. Usage will continue to decline through 2023, when it will drop to 14.1 million. eMarketer has cut its forecast substantially since Q3 2018, when it forecast 17.0 million users for 2019.
“Many of Snapchat’s users didn’t like the way Stories and chats were mixed together in a confusing presentation, a change that went into effect in late 2017 but continued to roll out throughout 2018,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Showmik Podder. “The backlash was so severe that Snapchat was forced to scale back some of the changes just a few months later.”
Despite the dissatisfaction among some users with the redesign, Snapchat continued to add users in 2018 as it reworked and tweaked the app design. In fact, it grew strongly in early 2018, but Snapchat user growth waned near the end of the year as it faced increased competition from other apps.
Importantly, we expect that Snapchat will lose users in every age group in 2019. Two key demographics for social networks will see the highest numbers of departures: users ages 12 to 17 (down 2.8%) and those 25 to 34 (down 2.7%).