Snapchat bets big on India's Gen Z with localized content and creator push

The time spent watching content on the American multimedia instant messaging app has doubled in India over the past two years, boosted by its efforts to customize the service and deepen engagement with Gen Z, whom it views as its key target audience, a top company official said. The company declined to share the exact time spent on the platform, but industry estimates put it at 15-30 minutes per day per user in the country, where it boasts 250 million active users.

The company said that the number of official Snap Stars (a verified Snapchat creator recognized for high-quality content, public presence, and popularity) in India has risen by 1.5 times in the past two years, underscoring a growing demand for authentic creator-led content.

Snapchat said content shared on Spotlight by creators and publishers has grown over fourfold year-on-year. Snapchat Spotlight is a dedicated entertainment feed within the app, similar to Reels on Instagram, that showcases short, user-generated video content selected for being entertaining or trending.

“India is a tremendously important market. Our largest user base is here—250 million monthly active users, and we are on our path to a billion active users a month (globally). Plus, one of the largest concentrations of Gen Z is in India. These make for fundamental demographic shifts where we sit nicely, and it's showing up in our growth," Saket Jha Saurabh, director and head—content and augmented reality partnerships, Snap Inc., said in an interview.

The company's strategy to sharpen its appeal among young Indians is also reflected in its financials.

Snap Camera India, the Indian arm of Snap Inc that operates the Snapchat platform, crossed the ₹100-crore revenue mark in FY24. Its operating revenue rose 28.5% to ₹101.3 crore during the year, from ₹78.8 crore in the previous fiscal year, according to financial intelligence firm Tofler. The India entity’s net profit grew 25.9% to ₹9.7 crore in FY24, from ₹7.7 crore in FY23.

Saurabh said localization is an important, multi-pronged strategy for Snapchat in India. One, the platform is increasingly seeing young creators coming from cities such as Lucknow, Patna and Coimbatore, bringing with them locally-resonant content. For them, the company has launched programs like the Snapchat Creator Connect, which is a multi-city initiative to empower Gen Z creators and digital storytellers by providing mentorship, growth opportunities, and engagement tools.

Second, in India, there has been a surge in movie and TV content on Snapchat, which has partnered with studios like Dharma Productions and Maddock Films for marketing campaigns, while also onboarding celebrities such as Rashmika Mandanna.

Other than the work around augmented reality (AR) filters and lenses, Saurabh said commerce is also an important part of the localization strategy, where major brands advertise on the platform. Lenses and filters on Snapchat allow users to add visual effects to a photo, face, or surroundings.

“Snapchat has been aggressively promoting influencers to create content on the app and it is a good app for creation. Instagram is considered as our portfolio so creators are very wary of what they post, even YouTube videos require high production values, but on Snapchat, no one is expecting aesthetics, the audience is demanding engagement and authenticity," said Suraj Pal Singh, a Jaipur-based creator who has over 456,900 followers on Snapchat.

Singh, whose Snapchat audience base—mostly youngsters—has grown at least 50% since last year, added that the lenses further help create better content. He emphasized that even the monetization opportunity is better compared to other platforms, wherein creators get paid for the stories and short-form content they upload.

“Snapchat is currently testing waters in the Indian market, so their payouts keep fluctuating. Sometimes they contribute the highest to my monthly income compared to other apps, but at other times even the lowest. Initially, to lure more creators, they had proposed an attractive rate, which they have moderated slightly over time. But overall, it is an emerging platform that is slowly expanding and benefitting creators," he added.

Snapchat, which has 900 million active monthly users globally, has forged strong ties with Gen Z and younger millennials, an audience base that is notoriously hard to capture on traditional platforms, said Bhushan Kadam, senior vice-president—creative and strategic initiatives, White Rivers Media, a digital agency that works on movie marketing campaigns.

“In India, Snapchat’s daily user base is overwhelmingly between 13 and 34 years old, which makes it a natural fit for categories like fashion, beauty, gaming, and entertainment. These are industries where trends, visuals, and quick adoption cycles matter. For films in particular, the platform is powerful because audiences do not just consume promotions, they play with them, share them, and make them part of their own content. That is why a lens or filter can often outlast a trailer, building buzz in ways that feel organic rather than forced." Kadam added.

Entertainment industry experts say that Snapchat sees little traction among users over 40, limiting its reach and brand impact. As youngsters form its core audience, the app is deeply personal, built around unfiltered, authentic sharing—making brand presence feel intrusive, and almost out of place.

A marketer who has run campaigns for major consumer brands across packaged food and beverages said on the condition of anonymity that while Snapchat Lens is all about brand marketing and awareness, there is hardly any performance marketing or scope for conversions here.

L. Muralikrishnan, co-founder and chief marketing officer of food chain Wow! Momo, pointed out that Snapchat largely caters to a Gen Z audience that accounts for a bit more than a fourth of the country's population, and half of it doesn’t even have purchasing power. “Brands aren’t ready to block large sums of their marketing budget on a platform largely catering to only a small segment of the population. That said, it is a good platform to get discovered or spread awareness about your brand in creative ways like using AR lenses, especially to a young population, but don’t expect direct conversion to sales," Muralikrishnan said.

The biggest hurdle with Snapchat is the lack of creator discoverability, according to Anirudh Sridharan, co-founder of HashFame, a creator network. “We haven’t seen any creators who started and scaled on Snapchat. Creators who are popular on other platforms mostly use Snapchat just as an additional platform, not a primary one. This is the reason media buying agencies have not been able to build a sizeable model around the Snapchat ecosystem yet. Unless that happens, brands will not be able to successfully run data-driven campaigns on the platform," Sridharan added.

Soumya Gupta contributed to this story.