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Cape Town – On Sunday night the mighty queen of social media took down one of her enemies. With a single blow she shattered the illusions of innocence that once was the platform that the Princess of Pop stood on.
Kim Kardashian with only a handful of snaps gave Taylor Swift’s career the biggest blow it has ever suffered – sending the chart-topping singer to a hashtag-death. #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty.
24 hours later and the snaps have vanished - as is the nature of the Snapchat beast. But the aftermath, backlash, downloads and screengrabs will live on forever more.
But there’s one thing about this Kimye vs Tay Tay battle that we simply can’t ignore – the platform on which the shocking takedown took place.
A 7-year-old feud that started long before the platform even existed played off on Snapchat with almost Shakespearean elegance as Kim took on the role of a passionate Lady Macbeth that would kill to ensure her husband remains the King.
Picaboo I see you
Snapchat was launched 4 years ago in September 2011 by two Stanford students in a very Zukerbergish way.
First named “Picaboo” the whole idea behind the app was to send instant short-lived images to followers, fans or friends. The platform quickly evolved and grew in leaps and bounds before transforming into the full-fledged social media platform it is today. From being used to send dick pics to becoming a real threat to the likes of Twitter and even the mighty Facebook.
When Facebook became too crowded with adults and other embarrassing family members the younger generation was the first to jump ship and Snapchat was their lifeboat in the ever-changing stormy social media sea. Snapchat was the new hotspot to hang out and there were no adults in sight – mostly because they found the app nearly impossible to master.
But on Sunday night Kim Kardashian chose to use the neon yellow app with its silly ghost icon to broadcast Taylor’s lies to the world. Kim, one of the top 10 most followed celebrities on Twitter, did not use the go-to-140-character-twar site for her beef with the Bad Blood singer. Instead she made gossip history by launching the first high-profile public spat on Snapchat and sent many flocking to download the friendly ghost app.
The beginning of the end
For teens that have been using the app for a while it was not good news that Kim brought her battle to Snapchat. The whole reason Snapchat is a trendy place to hangout is because not everyone uses it. For others it signalled the start of a social media migration to a new platform – like the early movement from MySpace to Facebook. You can almost hear the Lion King music playing in the background.
But Snapchat’s growth isn’t breaking news. According to Bloomberg the app’s daily video views increased by over 400% from May 2015 to May 2016. In April 2016 Snapchat reported that it on average sees over 10 billion video views per day – kicking dust in the face of Facebook’s 8 billion views per day.
No matter the statistics it’s when celebrities start using the platform that the masses sit up and take notice. The fact that world-famous Kim Kardashian has made Snapchat her platform of choice to sort out her bitter beef means the rest of us need to catch up. If you haven’t mastered the app by now you quickly need to get on board or face being left behind in an ever-evolving tech universe.
Whilst advertisers, publishers and brands struggle to get to grips with just how to master this new way of communicating with their audience there’s already a Pokemon sized new monster on the horizon getting ready to be the next big thing. For now Snapchat will enjoy its time in the spotlight – the sexy, young new app that everyone wants to be friends with.
Thanks, Kim.
