MEMORANDUM

To: Cheryl Brodersen

From: Nathan Beasley
Date: 3/8/16
Subject: APA Memo
Cheryl, I have read the articles that you wanted me to look over and
have developed a memorandum to explain their content. Social media
is continuing to grow rapidly, and, in order for you to gain information
on the industry without reading through the articles, I have provided a
brief summary of these pieces. The best way to understand the social
network is to look at the two very different applications Facebook and
Snapchat
Facebook
When speaking of social media, Facebook immediately comes to mind
because it has set the standard for future applications. Facebooks
main attraction is that it enables users to share personal information to
the general public like pictures, videos, and text while also providing
the option to send messages directly to friends and family allowing for
a different level of privacy (Carter, 2015). Facebook was one of the first
sites to provide this service and because of that it dominates the
market currently. To demonstrate how much control the site has over
the industry, Brittany Carter (2015) states that, the top industry
player, Facebook, [makes] up over 60.0% of revenue, and the largest
three companies [are] generating 94.4% of revenue, this industry is
highly concentrated (p. 18). Facebook controls most of the social
media world; however, many think that younger people are shying
away from using popular sites like Facebook as their primary social
media connection and are switching to newer applications like
Snapchat (Utz, Muscanell, & Khalid, 2015)
Snapchat
Snapchat is a relatively new application in the market that allows users
to send photos or videos that are then dissolved after a few seconds
of viewing (Utz et al, 2015). This new format has attracted much of the
younger crowd, making it the third most popular app behind Facebook
and Instagram (a video/photo sharing site). Johnson and Lauren (2015)
state that, Unlike more established platforms like Facebook and
Twitter, Snapchat's disappearing posts provide a playful
environment (p. 1) which is likely why it has become so prevalent.
Snapchat also provides great advertising opportunities while staying
relatively low risk for companies because the information isnt
scrutinized as much as Facebook and Twitter (another social media
site) (Johnson & Lauren, 2015).

Conclusion
By looking at the large company Facebook and the new player
Snapchat, you can get a great idea of the social media market at the
moment. Hopefully I have summarized the information in these articles
enough for you to get an understanding of the material. If you have
any questions, feel free to email me at nathanbeasley@comcast.net.

References
Carter, B. (2015, October). IBISWorld Industry Report 0D4574. Social
Networking Sites in the US. Retrieved from IBISWorld database.
Johnson, L. (2015). Why Snapchat Is Becoming the Hottest Social Tool
for Ad Agencies. Adweek, 1.
Utz, S., Muscanell, N., & Khalid, C. (2015). Snapchat Elicits More
Jealousy than Facebook: A Comparison of Snapchat and Facebook
Use. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking,18(3),
141-146. Retrieved March 8, 2016