Messaging and social media platform Snapchat has expanded its advertiser base in India tenfold over the past two years, underscoring the growing importance of the country in the social media company's global growth strategy as it looks to monetise one of its largest user markets.
Pulkit Trivedi, managing director for India at Snap Inc, told ET that the company has also seen a threefold increase in the number of advertisers making significant recurring spends on the platform, as brands increasingly turn to Snapchat to reach younger consumers. He did not share the absolute numbers for these metrics.
The growth comes even as global advertising markets grapple with macroeconomic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions, which have prompted marketers to tighten spending more closely and prioritise measurable returns on investment. Globally, Snap called out the impact on its advertising revenue during its January-March quarter earnings on account of the West Asia conflict – apart from a slowdown in the North America market.
India, however, remains one of Snap's fastest-growing markets globally, according to Trivedi. The company has over 250 million monthly active users in the country, making India its largest user market worldwide.
"We've really grown our advertiser base, and the growth is 10x from where we were two years back," Trivedi said. "The number of advertisers who are spending meaningfully with us quarter after quarter has also gone up 3x."
The company is pitching itself as a differentiated platform for brands seeking to engage India's Gen Z population, a strategy that has become central to Snap's India operations since Trivedi took over as the country’s managing director in 2023. Earlier, Snap had described India as a key growth market despite a broader global restructuring that included layoffs and a renewed focus on its largest revenue-generating regions in North America and Europe.
Unlike rivals such as Meta and Google, which have built massive advertising businesses across demographics, Snapchat has increasingly positioned itself around younger audiences. “The spectrum of our active advertiser base is well spread across multi verticals…there is high affinity because of the Gen Z association. You'll see greater traction with fashion, lifestyle, beauty and personal care, gaming, media and entertainment, smartphones, where most of these brands are making deliberate attempts to go and speak to young consumers,” Trivedi said.
He argued that structural shifts in India's digital economy – including the rapid growth of ecommerce and quick commerce, rising connected-TV consumption and premiumisation of smartphones – will continue to expand the country's digital advertising market over the coming years. He expects India to move from being the world's seventh-largest digital advertising market to the third-largest over the next five to seven years.
“In the on-demand and quick-commerce ecosystem, driving high-intent consumer attention is paramount. Our strategic approach to digital engagement is rooted in the first-principles of 'contextual commerce', reaching the consumer when they are in an active, communicative mindset,” Rohit Kapoor, CEO, Swiggy food marketplace, said in a prepared comment.
Snap is also betting heavily on artificial intelligence and augmented reality-led advertising formats to drive advertiser spending, Trivedi said. He said the company has rolled out AI-powered tools for campaign optimisation and targeting, while newer formats such as Sponsored Snaps and augmented reality experiences are delivering stronger engagement and conversion metrics for brands.
The advertiser push reflects a broader mandate for Snap in India. When Trivedi joined the company from Google, one of his key responsibilities was to deepen monetisation of Snapchat's rapidly expanding user base in the country. While India contributes the largest share of Snapchat's global users, monetisation levels have historically lagged more mature markets such as North America.
