At this point, it doesn’t feel hyperbolic to say that everybody hates the new Snapchat. The redesign, which the company said was to make the app more user-friendly, is bad. It’s confusing to use if you’re new to the app. And it’s even more confusing to use if you were familiar and comfortable with the old version. Since its release, people have been begging Snapchat to revert to the previous model or give them a way to uninstall the update. Others have just abandoned the app altogether. Among the latter group is Kylie Jenner, who tweeted on Wednesday that she just doesn’t find herself opening Snapchat anymore. On Thursday, Maybelline — as in the brand, and not some person named Maybelline — tweeted a short-lived poll asking followers if they should stay on Snapchat or go all-in on Instagram Stories instead. “Our @Snapchat views have dropped dramatically and we want to stay connected to you all. We’re not sure if this is the platform to do it anymore, unfortunately. Should Maybelline stay on Snapchat?,” the tweet read, before Maybelline deleted it on Thursday evening.
When the poll was still live – at about 6:15 p.m. on Thursday – it had two hours to go and 81 percent of the 5,000 or so people who had voted chose the bail for Instagram option. It was an annoying tweet on Maybelline’s part — perhaps do your marketing strategizing internally rather than in a public forum — but also one that should concern Snapchat. If the new Snapchat is bad for Maybelline’s business, it’ll ultimately be worse for Snap’s. When Kylie Jenner tweeted she was over the app, shares in the company fell 7.2 percent. That tweet cost Snap roughly $1.3 billion in valuation. If brands and businesses decide that Snapchat is no longer giving them adequate returns on the money and time they’ve been investing in the platform, just imagine how much that will cost Snap.
Update, February 22, 2018, at 6:37 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect Maybelline’s deletion of their tweet.
