Snapchat is all over in the news for refusing a 3 billion USD offer from rival social network Facebook. Since then there are numerous public spat between the Facebook management and Snapchat management.

So what is it that is driving Facebook to buy Snapchat?

Snapchat is cool - It is one of the most widely perceived cool app in the world. It is growing at neck breaking pace and reached 50 million active users before any of the other startup social media applications. The application is most loved by the teenagers who unlike the previous generation understand that whatever you leave on the internet it remains there forever.

It is totally engrossing -- If you are using it then you are completely in it. Unlike the other social media network it has taken the generation's question "Have I missed something important" to the next level. It is completely engrossing, seriously personal and to a great extent really private. This intimacy is the factor that is driving its growth because teenagers like the previous generations able to keep their friend circle closed rather than an open one such as Facebook and Google+.

Marketers' Dream

Snapchat is a marketer's dream in the modern day media environment where everyone of us is bombarded with more than 100 advertisements a day across all platforms. Snapchat provides a tool that is seriously private. What it provides is 100% user attention and participation. The user has to keep the thumb on screen to keep the message rolling.

Even though Snapchat has resisted advertising so far it can be safely assumed that once it reaches a certain scale, it will be more receptive to it. That will provide a completely new metric to the advertisers - Active user engagement level.

How long the user watched the advertisement or how long he / she contemplated about the deal and what action he /she took about the message. It will open new frontiers for the online advertising as advertisers were not only able to learn what is the reach of the message, on how many screens it got displayed, what people were searching for but also how time they spent on advertisement and what action they took. What type of advertisement takes how much response time and what can be done to better the message.

Conclusion

It seems that the vast opportunities of highly personalized, time and space specific advertisement based on the platform have just opened. This revolution will be further fueled by Snapchat and upcoming technology devices such as Google glass and smart watches.

Alan Scott is a freelance writer. He writes for Trequista Consulting

Trequista Consulting is a management consulting company specializing in Strategy, Analytics Retail, BRICS markets, and Supply Chain Management.