Teens: Snapchat Now Tops Instagram As “Most Important” Social Network

April 21, 2016

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Men | Retail & E-Commerce | Social Media | Teens & Younger | TV Audiences & Consumption | Video | Videogames

PiperJaffray-Teens-Most-Important-Social-Network-Apr2016Teens continue to shift their perceptions of their “most important” social network. First it was Facebook (early 2013), then Twitter (late 2013), and then Instagram (early 2014). The latest flavor du jour, taking over after a 2-year run from Instagram, is Snapchat, according to the most recent biannual teen survey from Piper Jaffray, reported here by FORTUNE.

Some 28% of teen respondents named Snapchat their “most important” social network, narrowly ahead of Instagram, which was cited by 27% of respondents. It was the first drop for Instagram, suggesting that Snapchat’s popularity is increasing at least somewhat at the expense of the Facebook-owned network. Facebook, meanwhile, saw its first increase in perceived importance in some time, while Twitter continued its multi-year decline on this measure.

The Piper Jaffray findings – based on a survey of 6,350 US teens with an average age of 17 – come on the heels of separate survey results from Edison Research and Triton Digital supporting the growing popularity of Snapchat. In that survey, more 12-24-year-olds reported using Snapchat (72%) than Facebook (68%) or Instagram (67%). Worth noting, though, was that respondents said that they use Facebook the most often, a finding also corroborated by other research into teens and social media.

Separately, in a recent study [download page], comScore revealed that almost half (47%) of Snapchat’s adult (18+) users are aged 18-24. By comparison, Vine, the platform with the next-largest youth skew, had a much smaller 28% of its users in the 18-24 bracket.

Meanwhile, in other results from the Piper Jaffray survey:

  • Video game spending reached an all-time high for male teens in this latest edition of the survey, occupying 13% share of their spending, behind only clothing (15%) and food (20%);
  • Some 51% of teens surveyed report that their household subscribes to Amazon Prime; and
  • Netflix (38%), YouTube (23%) and Hulu (5%) now together account for almost two-thirds of teens’ TV content time, compared to just 26% for cable TV. More data on teens’ traditional TV viewing trends can be found here.
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