Snap hits 100 million monthly users in India, announces AR partnerships with Flipkart, Samsung and others

Snap Inc., which houses the social media app Snapchat, reached 100 million monthly users in India, as announced in the second edition of the ‘Snap in India’ event hosted on 27 October. While celebrating the achievement, Snap also announced strategic brand partnerships with a host of companies, including Flipkart and Zomato. Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel said the company will continue to anchor “efforts around celebrating local culture and talent,” apart from providing resources and empowerment to the community of Indian creators. Snap will partner with Flipkart to develop ‘innovative AR experiences’ for online shopping. This will be the first e-commerce partnership for Snap in the country, with the company’s Camera Kit being an integral part of the “Camera Storefront” of Flipkart. The co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Snap,  Bobby Murphy, said AR is at the “core of Snapchat’s offerings in India”, adding that the company aims to partner with more local creators in the country to increase the number of “incredible experiences available to Snapchatters”. The company is also partnering with Zomato to launch the first Snap Map in the country, which will allow users to order food from their personal map on Snapchat. Snap is also extending its partnership with Samsung Mobiles for the company’s ‘Made in India’ M series smartphones, with the mobile company launching a unique ‘Fun Mode’ to include some of Snap’s AR-powered lenses in Samsung’s native camera app. MyGlamm and Sugar Cosmetics have adopted Snap’s AR shopping beta program to provide virtual try-on experiences to users. Snapchat has established distribution partnerships with all the top Android Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), with a total of over 100 million devices in the country. Snap says it has seen an increase of 70 percent in net advertisers last year, with e-commerce, FMCG, video streaming, mobile wallets, entertainment and tech OEMs being the top sectors. In terms of content partnerships, Snap has increased local content options for the Indian community by partnering with leading channels. The company’s ‘Discover’ content section has over 70 local Indian channels with fitness, news, entertainment, comedy and fashion content. For the year 2022, the company has also commissioned over 120 episodes of new content. Mojiworks and Snap will be collaborating once again to include India-themed trivia in their hit game Trivia Party. The two had previously collaborated for a localised challenge, Dosa Dash, for Snap’s Ready Chef Go! game. Snap launched the Creator Marketplace recently, allowing brands to connect directly with creators and pay them for production of branded content, with 100 percent of the money going to the creators. AR Lens Creators in the country are presently participating, and Snap Stars in India is set to roll out soon.