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Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has acquired Saturn Technologies Inc., a social calendar app widely used by high-school and college students in the U.S., in a move aimed at enhancing its appeal to Gen Z users.
Founded by Dylan Diamond and Max Baron in 2018, Saturn has become a staple in the academic and social lives of teenagers. The app helps students manage their class schedules, extracurricular activities, and shared events in a social format that closely mirrors the Snapchat experience.
With this acquisition, nearly all of Saturn’s 30-member team will join Snap, although the app will continue to operate as a standalone platform for now.
Snapchat holds significant appeal amongst Gen Z for the constant social engagement opportunities it presents. In India too, the app is actively targeting India's Gen Z demographic, with the platform seeing significant growth in user engagement and revenue.
Although, despite claiming deep penetration among India’s Gen Z, Snapchat continues to lag behind in attracting serious brand and advertiser interest in India, as reported by Storyboard18 earlier. While platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and even homegrown players like Moj and ShareChat secure consistent ad spends, Snapchat struggles to break into the media plans of top marketers. Insiders point to a lack of localized strategy, limited creator ecosystems, inconsistent brand safety controls, and underwhelming ad performance metrics as key reasons. As India's digital ad market becomes fiercely ROI-driven, Snapchat's flashy AR filters and youth appeal alone may no longer be enough to win over advertisers chasing scale and substance.
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