Social Media Consolidation And The Fate of Snapchat

Consolidation is everywhere. Does that mean that Snapchat is about to get gobbled up?

There’s been a lot of heat on this topic lately. Most notably, Scott Galloway (NYU professor, Gartner L2, YouTuber and author of The Four) recently predicted that Snapchat would be acquired by the end of the year. This prediction came via an excellent (and new podcast) that he co-hosts along with Recode’s Kara Swisher called, Pivot. The time is ripe. Apple just finished taking in Shazam, while Twitter, Pinterest, Flipboard and several others are still independent (for the time being). The truth is that big business can not grow organically to satiate the markets, and consolidation (through acqusiition) is the new reality. Does it benefit the market? Does it benefit the business? It is a little bit of both? While Galloway thinks that the likely company to take in Snap will be Google or Amazon, I believe there are other options beyond the group of FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google). There is a huge opportunity for the major publishers here (both traditional ones like newspapers and magazine as well as more modern poublishers like Oath, etc…). We can’t dismiss the major advertising holding companies, nor should we not look at big MarTech players (like Salesforce, Adobe, HubSpot, etc…). It would also not be surprising if some of the suitors were the new disruptors in the advertising holding company space. Namely, Accenture, Deloitte, and the other accounting and consultancy juggernauts. If Snapchat wants to sold, there are many suitors. And, the suitors – in and of themselves – come from differing and competitive forces. Very interesting.

Interested in hearing more? You may want to listen to this: BeanCast #514 – Billionaires Whining.

Recently, I discussed these topics (and more) along with Rose Cameron (consultant), Janet Comenos (Co-Founder and CEO, Spotted), Scott Monty (Principal, Scott Monty Strategies) and host Bob Knorpp on the very excellent BeanCast Podcast (which I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on in the past). I don’t know what it is about BeanCast, Bob Knorpp and these other panelists, but there is always “something in the water” when we record these conversations that brings out a lot of stimulating ideas and insights. Please let me know what you think. 

Take a listen and jump into the fray…