Instagram May Have More Users, But Nearly Half Of US Teens Prefer Snapchat

Instagram may have more people using its Stories feature than Snapchat, but teens still prefer the latter, according to new data from investment firm Piper Jaffray.

Instagram announced over the summer it had 250 million daily active users on its Stories feature, much more than Snapchat, which reported 166 million daily active users in May.

The survey, which is conducted semi-annually, found nearly half of teens surveyed said Snapchat was their preferred platform. The figure represents a 12 percent year-over-year growth for Snapchat.

The survey results are good for Snapchat, since it has been struggling with other platforms that have been copying its features. Bigger social media apps, like Facebook and Instagram, have copied Snapchat’s original 24-hour disappearing stories feature and created their own versions. Instagram also came out with filters for its stories, similar to Snapchat.

Snap has struggled to keep afloat by releasing multiple updates this year, like inserting links to stories, new stand-alone voice filters and creative backgrounds. This week, Snapchat came out with its Context Cards feature, which displays information about a location when swiping up. Snap partnered with Trip Advisor, Foursquare, Michelin and goop to bring the feature to users. Through Context Cards, users can book a ride with Uber or Lyft or reserve a table with OpenTable, Resy or Bookatable.

Snap released a video on how the new feature works:

Teens Prefer Apple

An overwhelming number of teens prefer iPhones. The survey found 82 percent of teens expect their next smartphone to be an iPhone. The figure is up 81 percent from the last survey this past spring. Teens are also shifting towards Apple Music, Piper Jaffray said. The survey found only 35 percent of teens listen to Pandora, down from 49 percent last year. Meanwhile, on-demand music services, like Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube have continued to gain share.

Amazon is also popular among teens. Survey respondents who said they preferred Amazon as their favorite site was at 49 percent, up nine percent from last year. Amazon seems to know it's popular with young people. The company announced this week a new method for teens to shop using their parents' Amazon account. The feature allows teens ages 13 through 17 to create their own login and independently shop on the Amazon app, instead of using their parents' account log in. When teens place orders, parents will be alerted about purchases and will be asked to approve transactions.

Piper Jaffray interviewed about 6,100 teens with an average of 16 for the survey.