Over 250 million people use the integrated map feature on Snapchat to see where their friends are in the world. The map interface has been recently upgraded to a main tab within the app, and the company is now adding a new feature that displays popular places it thinks you might want to visit. The platform aims to enhance the discovery of businesses within it through a new element on the Snapchat map called "My Favorites," which highlights popular businesses and places you've visited before on the map view.
Snap Map users will also start seeing lists of places, such as restaurants, that have been marked in previous posts or saved as favorites. You can locate a range of businesses on the map with three different list categories: places popular among your friends on Snap, places you have liked, and places you have previously visited. The "Popular" tab at the bottom center of the Snapchat map displays recommendations for places you can go, based on factors like your current location, friends' activity on the map, and the types of places you've saved as favorites.
A company spokesperson stated that this new algorithm in our popular tab distinguishes the Snapchat map as a highly personalized discovery platform, marking the first feature of its kind for the Snapchat app overall. With these additions and recent updates, such as integrations with the restaurant review site The Infatuation and Ticketmaster, the platform is transforming its map into a unique way to explore the world around you. Although it hasn’t proven to be a significant revenue driver for the company yet, advertisers can target ads based on the locations of users who have chosen to share this information. As a result, this may present a good way to encourage foot traffic to local businesses.
Seeing friends on the map alongside information about businesses is a relatively unique feature that Facebook has not been able to replicate. The company stated that with "My Favorites," users can discover more than 30 million businesses, record their favorite local spots, and find personalized recommendations visible to their friends and the platform's global community. Furthermore, Snapchat recently mentioned that it has 293 million daily users, making its user base approximately 42% larger than that of Twitter.
