MBB7007M Global Business Strategy: Snapchat Case Study

Introduction of MBB7007M Global Business Strategy: Snapchat Case Study

Get free written samples from subject experts and online assignment writing service in UK.

The following study will present a clear picture of the annual revenue and business performance of Snapchat inc. This analysis will help to suggest different kinds of strategic plans for the Snapchat organisation, and it will also discover the last three years' financial and business performance of the Snapchat inc. The critical analysis will help figure out the internal factors of the Snapchat organisation. For instance, the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Besides, it will highlight the external factors through the Porter five analysis; this discussion will help recognise the power of suppliers, the power of buyers, new entrance, the threat of substitution, and the competitive rivalry of Snapchat inc. In addition, the critical reflection will help to understand own reflection on the renowned online application which influences human life. Furthermore, this recommendation section will help suggest the best way for the Snapchat organisation to succeed in the modern era.

Snapchat inc financial and business performance over the past 3 years

The economy is an important part of any organisation, which has demonstrated its past and current status, and it will help show upcoming growth in the organisation. The primary objective of the Snap inc financial and business performance over the last three years which help to understand the past revenue scenario of the organisation. This discussion can help evaluate how well the company is doing about the goals proposed in the marketing strategy. This discussion can motivate the business and influence structural features in charge to affect those structures also with the firm's long-term objectives. Strong management can take the decisions and overcome their challenges or barrier, which helps to improve their adversity and can assist how will gain the productivity. Internal environment indicators of performance have been linked to the overall performance of Snap inc.

 Global annual net loss of Snap from 2015 to 2021

(Source: Statista, 2022)

This report has shown the global annual net loss of Snap inc from 2015 to 2021and; this report can help to understand from 2015 to 2021 annual performance of the business of Snap inc. It has highlighted the severe challenges, and it can suggest the many other guidelines that can bring the success of Snap inc. This discussion can provide several methods of the business management of Snap inc, and this report has presented the organisation's achievements. Besides, this report has demonstrated different types of financial statements that suggest the following in decision-making by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of companies and the possibilities and challenges covering them and providing sufficient data to assist in making their decisions. In addition, this discussion has discovered how can increase the productivity or revenue of the Snaps inc, and it has shown the scope of the project to provide all elements of the company's business instead of just the financial documents. This strategy audit has developed into a complete and systematic method for all aspects of the company's business. Financial performance indicators are connected to how well a company can do and how much money it helps make.

 Global annual revenue of Snap from 2015 to 2021

(Source: Statista, 2022)

This report has shown that Snapchat Inc's global annual income in 2021 is estimated to be nearly $4.11 billion, a rise from the $2.5 billion it achieved in 2020 (Statista, 2022). The financial management must make money for the business and get a good return on its investment. Financial management has been done to make business budget decisions, set up internal management, and make financial decisions for the business. Still, strategic planning is an opinion that it is a procedure that is different, classified, and not attached to the business of the company or group. On the other hand, strategic management refers to the planning, application, assessment, ongoing maintenance, and adaptation of organisational objectives. Financial performance measurements are often discussed in a company's financial statement to stockholders. Firm performance has been separated into different kinds. A financial system or revenue growth, financial results, and client satisfaction can be used to measure how well a company is doing, too.

Analysis

An organization should revise its strategies to do better than before. Every organization and every business has ever-rising competitors. However, competitors can positively and negatively affect an organization and its business. Strategies and strategic plans help guide an organization and its employees to follow the mission and vision of that organization. A successful strategic plan can help determine whether a business uses its resources inappropriately (Yao et al., 2019).

In contrast, a failed strategic plan also will lead an organization to face difficulties and losses. That is the reason behind choosing strategies and strategic plans correctly. Correct strategic actions can guide an organization to achieve ultimate goals and success.

SWOT analysis of Snapchat:

Strengths: Snapchat provides unique software to its users. That can be determined as one of the strengths of the organization. Self-deletion and several security concerns made it a user-friendly application adopted by the young crowd (Pascoe, 2021). Another positive side of Snapchat is its user base. Ever-growing user base makes it one of the most popular applications. Snapchat uses more visual media than its competitors, which attracts its users more (Snap Inc, 2022). The privacy offered by Snapchat helps the app be more user-friendly and welcoming. The sturdy interface of Snapchat is an additional advantage of the app, and it also adds benefits to the users.

Weaknesses: The diversification of Snapchat was one of the greatest failures. Snapchat spectacle is one of the examples of the greatest failure of Snapchat. The idea of diversification failed miserably, and also the organization lost a huge amount of money. Snapchat spoiled its image by issuing an IPO in 2012 (Fenn and Reilly, 2020). The stocks were not up to the value and made the company lose its positive image and money. Uncertainty of the users is another weakness of Snapchat. The revenue of Snapchat is dependent on the advertisements. This dependency also brings failure to the company. Failure to provide customer satisfaction is another weakness of Snapchat.

Opportunities: Snapchat has an additional benefit as it is a mobile app; users can use the app anywhere they want. It is a more convenient way to take pictures and share them and messages. In the current scenario, the world prefers more instant-messaging tools. This app can leave its footprint in this era of working remotely (Taber and Whittaker, 2018). The dependency on the smartphone creates an opportunity for the company. The company can use this opportunity to increase its performance and think of global expansion. The unique features of Snapchat can provide its customers with top-notch security, which will be another opportunity for Snapchat.

Threats: The ever-rising competitors are one of the biggest threats to Snapchat. Some of the competitors are strong enough to create a hindrance to the growth of Snapchat. The advancement of technologies is also considered a threat. The technologies are evolving so fast that it is difficult to cope with them. Some countries have limitations, and that restricts Snapchat from expanding its business. Countries like Korea, Qatar, Dubai, etc., have banned VoIP (Lidsky and Norbut, 2018). The company somehow failed to impress its customers with the speed and features of its applications. IT infrastructure creates problems regarding the services of the application. The problem regarding infrastructure is another threat to the organization not to fulfill customer satisfaction.

 Competence of Snapchat

(Source: Lidsky and Norbut, 2018)

Porter's five forces analysis:

Michael Porter introduces five forces to explain the situations of a business evaluating its consumers, suppliers, competitors, and other impactful situations that can affect a business (Fiala, 2019). It helps a business and an organization identify the threats and work on them before time. It helps a business be more sustainable by providing all the research and analysis.

Bargaining power of buyers: It is the nature of buyers to have more at a lesser price It will help to neutralize the pressure on the app and will also help to expand its business. They can introduce more features that will help to maintain their customer engagement. It will also help to control the bargaining power of the customers.

Bargaining power of suppliers: Dominance of the supplier creates problems for organizations and their businesses. Some powerful and famous internet service and software suppliers use their power to gain more money from the organizations (Fiala, 2019). Being an internet software and service provider, Snapchat faces a lack of profitability. Snapchat can experiment with different raw materials to not depend on anyone's raw material. They should generate a well-regulated chain of suppliers. Firm-based suppliers can help to supply raw materials solely to the firm.

Threats of substitutes: Many new substitutes for Snapchat are now available in the market, which targets the same group of customers. This creates a threat to the organization. The evolution of technologies helps to produce products with unique features. That is why customers are inclined toward new services and products (Koskiaita, 2021). Snapchat should focus on the customers' requirements and improvisation of the services they offer. They can also increase the switching to neutralize the threats.

New entrants: The new entrants always try to bring new and innovative ideas to the customers to gain their trust. They create a hurdle in the market of Snapchat by offering more features at a low price (Fiala, 2019). Snapchat can introduce new products and offer innovative services to secure a place in the business market. Spending money on research and analysis, they could make their knowledge stronger. That will help the organization make a strong customer base, and the new entrants will face establishing themselves.

Competitive rivalry: The ever-rising competitors generate issues that affect the profitability and productivity of an organization. Competitors make a decrease in prices too. They should generate a scale (Koskiaita, 2021). The scale will help them to identify their potential and also will help to compete better. Snapchat can collaborate with its competitors to conquer a bigger market together than compete for a smaller market.

 Growth stats of Snapchat

(Source: Koskiaita, 2021)

Sustainable Advantage analysis:

Innovation: Snapchat Inc. tries always innovating new products to attract its customers. One of the famous innovations is 3D painting on user’s selfies. Gaming features are also included in the application for the better engagement of the users. These innovations help the application to build a sustainable advantage.

Culture: Culture of a company helps it to stay in the market for long. Impactful and fun culture of the organization helps to drive more users toward it. Snapchat should invest in making the business sustainable, which will help them to stay in the long run.

Customers: The main asset of Snapchat is its customers. Snapchat has a powerful customer base which pressurizes Snapchat a lot. The customers always seek more offers and discounts. That makes Snapchat's profitability suffer a lot. Snapchat can overcome these problems by increasing its customer base (Koskiaita, 2021).

Prediction analytics: In order to make a business sustainable, the organization must revise its prediction analytics (Massaro et al., 2019). Prediction analytics help Snapchat to determine their present customer base, their attraction, and also helps to generate new features that will help to drive more users.

Explanation and justification of the strategic plans:

Focusing on the threats and the problems of Snapchat and analyzing them, it can be said that the organization must take some strategic measures to overcome unexpected and unwanted situations.

Focusing on customers: Snapchat Inc. should focus on the needs and desires of its customers. Only focusing on the ways to increase customers will not help the organization boom. They should invest time as well as money to know their target customers. Customers use this mobile application for messaging, promoting, and advertising (Massaro et al., 2019). In this era, the smartphone is an essential thing. Being a mobile application, Snapchat Inc. has the additional benefit of using it anywhere. This strategy will help to drive more customers toward the company.

Pricing strategy: Users can download and use Snapchat without spending a penny. However, Snapchat offers some premium content and advertisement. Snapchat earns almost 96% of its revenue from advertisements (Harrison et al., 2019). Anyone can promote their products on Snapchat. They even offer quite a low price compared to another similar service provider.

Unique features: The ever-rising and ever-evolving competitors encourage Snapchat to build new features for their loyal customers. Being user-friendly and robust makes Snapchat a favorite application at a young age (Ryan and Stahl, 2020). Being cheap, Snapchat attracts more people to use their application for the promotion of their products or events. They have a unique feature called 'geofilter,' which helps share information about the location of events or organization of the user. Using this filter, users can target their customers based on their location.

Creating a more user-friendly application: The organization should focus on making the application more user-friendly. The inclination of the users toward other competitors can be prohibited by creating a user-friendly application (Harrison et al., 2019) so that the users can make the best use of the application without facing any complications.

Providing data security: Another strategy that should be taken by the company is providing their customers with high-level data security. The strategic plan of deleting the message after a certain period helps to prohibit misuse of the information. The customers will feel more secure investing in an application that offers them the best security and controls data leakage (Massaro et al., 2019). Apart from the deletion of the message, Snapchat should verify its customers and their products so that they will not be able to promote any negativity in the application.

Performance of the app: Revising the IT infrastructure Snapchat can improve the speed and structure of its application. It will make the usage easy for all (Ryan and Stahl, 2020). The minimum age for using Snapchat is 13. So, it will be helpful for all the users to use the application if it offers comparatively easy use.

Keeping track of competitors: Snapchat Inc. should always keep track of its competitor's moves. It will help them to evaluate their progress or weakness. By evaluating their progress, they will be able to set their new strategies and act accordingly (Harrison et al., 2019). Setting strategies not only help them to understand the steps of their competitors, but it will also help them come up with new and innovative ideas that will help them increase profitability.

Trends: Following new trends is very much necessary for an organization as it is related to the betterment of the company. The new trends will help determine the necessary steps to follow in a company. By taking this strategic action, Snapchat will be able to overcome the losses faced by the company before (Ryan and Stahl, 2020). The trends will drive more customers toward the company resulting in more popularity, productivity, and profit.

Technology: Advancements in technology will help to boom the company. The industry opted for new and innovative technology. Introducing new and advanced technology will help the company to do better in the industry (Massaro et al., 2019). They can offer their customers newer features before any other competitors. They also can use the technology to lessen the cost of raw materials. The company should focus more on customer satisfaction and engagement.

All these strategic actions can be taken by Snapchat Inc. to conquer unfavorable situations. They should follow and apply these strategies to compete with their competitors and stay in a long-run of business. The industry in which Snapchat Inc belongs needs innovation every time. So, evaluating itself and its competitors, the company must focus on its growth to conquer the objectives they dream for.

Critical Reflection

This discussion has helped me understand the past and current situation of Snapchat Inc. Even so, I have gotten a clear idea about the past three to five years' performance and business growth. I have understood the challenges of the Snap inc organisation; this discussion help to me figure out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that can help the organisation remove obstacles that can bring positive outcomes for the organisation. In the globalisation era, a rapidly changing world, financial management is essential for employees and management. Financial planning is ancient; understanding and growing money are. To operate a company successfully and efficiently, one must understand income reports and management (Pascoe, 2021).

Furthermore, this discussion also helps me understand the external challenges of the organisation, which can create barriers for the organisation. In addition, I have recognised that the potter's five analysis has shown the organisation's challenges. For instance, power of suppliers, power of buyers, new entrance, the threat of substitution, and competitive rivalry. The above discussion has helped me understand the current situation of Snapchat inc. On March 2, 2017, Snap Inc., which owns Snapchat, determined to sell its first-ever shares on the stock exchange for $17 or so per. It was also back in business. By now, anyway, the shareholdings have been worth $24. By the end of each day, the share value had decided to jump by 44%, giving companies importance of about $34 billion (Sohmer, 2018).

Finally, I had gotten a clear idea from this report as mentioned above, which demonstrated that the performance revenue had been increasing day by day when it was started. So, I have thought that if this organisation can identify their obstacle, strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it will help to recover from its challenges. It can help increase the annual revenue of the Snapchat organisation. This discussion has helped me understand the Snapchat organisation's difficulties easily, and I had thought that it would make my life a lot easier than when I started to use it. This is the most popular way to connect with others. Individuals from different walks of life use it. Social networking was a big hit with the community (Sivakumar, 2020).

Recommendation

This discussion has suggested several aspects of the improvement which can help the Snapchat inc, and it will present how they can things have been modified in the virtual environment from the previous year. It is recommended that Contact Lenses must be displayed in a specific order and method (Rios et al., 2018). So Snapchat inc will need to change significantly because of new regulations regarding privacy. These online platforms will need to focus on changing their solutions to move with the times. In addition, this Snapchat inc will require sustaining customer retention and satisfaction because customer satisfaction is the major part of increasing the brand growth. The report mentioned above has shown that people like Snapchat because it is so shareable with everyday things and makes them stare good at the same time. It is indeed among the most popular social media platforms out there. The popular online application needs to increase the public safety feature; this Snapchat platform also needs to intend to introduce new familial control options. Alongside, it will need to understand that all these marketing campaigns are more efficient than external advertising whenever it happens to come to people trying to buy things. This report needs to demonstrate how these platforms impact people's purchase behaviour by looking at the two main things (Alghamdi and Bogari 2020). Those who are also continuing to work on methods which use machine learning. Snapchat will help determine how much it will get compensated, demonstrating why its achievement has risen. Its because the satisfaction performance of the model is to accept responsibility. In addition, Snapchat has several ways to improve its performance growth, including providing specialisation content, involving fans of their story, needing influencers who can help create a team, and the campaign reaching people who can not attend an event but like the content. When promoting the community for following the Snapchat posts, they'll surely tell their friends. The number of promotion codes used can evaluate the behaviour of customers and the program's effectiveness. The conceptual report suggested using defined structure change and unfortunate outcome recommendation chances to achieve additional security (Brendel et al., 2018).

Conclusion

The above mention discussion has highlighted the several components of the Snapchat inc. It has also figured out the annual business and performance report of Snapchat and has presented several kinds of business strategic plan and suggestion which has helped to improve its business growth. It also recommended the best way to succeed for Snapchat inc despite discovering the past three years' business performance and revenue Snapchat inc. This report has helped recognise and create a better idea about the performance increasing growth annually the Snapchat inc. Furthermore, the critical analysis has helped figure out the internal and external factors of Snapchat Inc.Although, the critical reflection has helped to understand the own aspects of the topic, which determined how it will reflect on a discussable topic. Finally, this analysis has provided several recommendations about the topic, which can help improve the difficulty that can bring the success of the Snapchat organisation.

Reference

Alghamdi, E.A. and Bogari, N., (2020). The Impact of Social Media Platforms “Instagram” and “Snapchat” on the Purchasing Decision-Structural Equation Modelling Approach: Social Media Platforms. International Journal of Online Marketing (IJOM), 10(1), pp.72-94.

Brendel, W., Han, F., Marujo, L., Jie, L. and Korolova, A.,(2018), April. Practical privacy-preserving friend recommendations on social networks. In Companion Proceedings of the The Web Conference 2018 (pp. 111-112).

Brou, K.F., Adjoumani, K., Yao, S.D.M., Koffi, K.G., Bonny, B.S. and Sié, R.S., (2019). Gene Actions and Combining Ability Analysis for Some Seed Characters in Citrullus Mucosospermus (Fursa). World, 7(3), pp.88-93.

Doz, Y., (2020). Fostering strategic agility: How individual executives and human resource practices contribute. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), p.100693.

Ehsan, U., Tambwekar, P., Chan, L., Harrison, B. and Riedl, M.O., (2019), March. Automated rationale generation: a technique for explainable AI and its effects on human perceptions. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 263-274).

Fenn, P. and Reilly, P.J., (2020). Problematising the use of Snapchat in higher education teaching and learning. Journal of Social Media for Learning, 1(1), pp.140-146.

Fiala, T.G., (2019). Commentary on: How Plastic Surgeons Value Professionalism: Using Q Methodology to Explore the Prioritization of Professionalism. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 39(12), pp.1423-1426.

Freberg, K., (2021). Social media for strategic communication: Creative strategies and research-based applications. Sage Publications.

Koskiaita, S., (2021). Export Business Plan–Case LashLovers Oy.

Lidsky, L.B. and Norbut, L.R., (2018). # IU: Considering the context of online threats. Calif. L. Rev., 106, p.1885.

Lombardi, R., Massaro, M., Dumay, J. and Nappo, F., (2019). Entrepreneurial universities and strategy: the case of the University of Bari. Management Decision.

Pascoe, M.A., (2021). The effect of Snapchat on learner satisfaction and anatomical knowledge retention: Preliminary observations. FASEB BioAdvances, 3(11), pp.909-917.

Pascoe, M.A.,(2021). The effect of Snapchat on learner satisfaction and anatomical knowledge retention: Preliminary observations. FASEB BioAdvances, 3(11), pp.909-917.

Rios, J.S., Ketterer, D.J. and Wohn, D.Y., (2018), October. How users choose a face lens on Snapchat. In Companion of the 2018 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work and social computing (pp. 321-324).

Ryan, M. and Stahl, B.C., (2020). Artificial intelligence ethics guidelines for developers and users: clarifying their content and normative implications. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society.

Sivakumar, R., (2020). Effects of social media on academic performance of the students. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning, 8(2), pp.90-97.

Snap Inc., (2022). Snap Inc.. [online] Snap.com. Available at: <https://www.snap.com/en-US> [Accessed 30 April 2022].

Sohmer, S., (2018). Underpriced or Overhyped? IPO Price Run-Ups and Firm Annual Performance (Doctoral dissertation).

Statista, (2022). Snap annual net income 2021 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/668190/snapchat-annual-net-income-loss/> [Accessed 30 April 2022].

Statista, (2022). Snap annual revenue 2021 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/552702/snapchat-annual-revenue/> [Accessed 30 April 2022].

Taber, L. and Whittaker, S., (2018), April. Personality depends on the medium: differences in self-perception on Snapchat, Facebook and offline. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).

Wong, A., Holmes, S. and Schaper, M.T., (2018). How do small business owners actually make their financial decisions? Understanding SME financial behaviour using a case-based approach. Small Enterprise Research, 25(1), pp.36-51.