In its struggle to expand its reach to more users in developing markets, Snapchat — the globally renowned photo-messaging app, has launched a beta test version in eight new languages, out of which five belongs to the Indian community, the News 18 reported last week.
The new addition of languages being tested in Snapchat beta includes Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Malay, Vietnamese, and Filipino. This shows the company’s current focus on the Indian market to take hold of this developing market.
The web portal Social Media Today quoted Snapchat as saying on the Snapchat beta description; “This is our first Beta containing eight new languages! If you’re fluent in any languages listed below, try changing your device language to check them out.”
Interestingly, the company has suggested beta testers to declare issues with screenshots to help make the launch of these languages “awesome”. Meanwhile, the official release date of Snapchat bet with the support of these new languages is still unconfirmed. We also don’t know at this point that whether the beta is being tested by Android users, iOS users or both.
Last year in October, Snapchat hired Raheel Khursheed, former head of news partnerships and government for Twitter India, as its first executive to head operations in the country. This gives a clear hint that the company is apparently backing out from its CEO Evan Spiegel’s remarks, who infamously said that the company has no plans of expanding its business in “poor countries” like India and Spain.
In February, the photo-messaging app claimed that it had added 186 million daily users in the final three months of 2018, ending a streak of two consecutive quarters of declining users.
While Snapchat lost users because of its much-criticized redesign, the company laid stress that it eventually resulted in 30 percent more people watching its exclusive stories and shows.
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