3 Apps That May Be The Snapchat Of The East

Many American investors were excited to get in on the Snap Inc SNAP IPO last week. With more than 158 million daily active users, Snapchat is one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States. However, at the moment, the single largest global market is the world is off-limits.

The Chinese government has banned domestic use of a number of popular American apps, including Snapchat. But that ban doesn’t mean Chinese citizens aren’t snapping and chatting like the rest of us.

DianDianChong

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, which invested $200 million in Snap back in 2015, also owns DianDianChong, an app that features disappearing messages and a feature that is extremely similar to Snapchat’s lenses. DianDianChong even sports a familiar bright yellow logo.

Snow

In addition to DianDianChong, Japanese company Line Corp (ADR) LN holds a nearly 50 percent stake in a South Korean Snapchat clone called Snow. Line’s recent $45 million investment in Snow values the company at around $207 million compared to Snap’s $24.8 billion market cap. Snow currently has 40 million–50 million active users, less than a third of Snapchat’s audience. Snow’s app also features familiar face filters and disappearing messages.

QQ

Tencent’s QQ is another Chinese Snapchat analog that actually dwarfs its American counterpart in terms of users. According to the Wall Street Journal, the app has 877 million monthly active users, 60 percent of which were born after 1989. Although QQ has been around for decades, recently added features such as animations and disappearing videos are clearly Snapchat-inspired.

Related Link: The 13 Biggest Risks To Investing In Snap, According To Snap