Snapchat’s global chief technology officer (CTO) Bobby Murphy has said that the social media platform’s augmented reality (AR) developer community in India has grown by more than 50% in the past two years.
Speaking at the second annual India AR Day in Mumbai, Murphy also said that the country accounted for the highest number of lenses published on Snapchat. For the uninitiated, lenses are AR experiences that appear inside the Snapchat camera.
“…. Among all countries, the highest number of lenses published on Snapchat come from India. And the developer community here has grown by more than half, over the last two years. India is an extraordinary country where AR has become a part of daily life,” said Murphy.
In a statement, the company said that its global AR developer network comprises more than 3.75 Lakh creators which have built over 4 Mn AR Lenses. Snapchat also said that its AR developers in India come from the state capital as well as other towns such as Goraya, Prayagraj, Cochin and Ambala among others.
Snapchat India managing director (MD) Pulkit Trivedi also said that the country is home to more than 200 Mn users of the social media platform.
“India is home to a thriving community of creators and developers who are shaping the future of AR… We believe long-term success in AR relies on a strong developer ecosystem, and we remain deeply committed to fostering this vibrant community,” added Trivedi.
Elaborating on its India focus, the social media giant also said that it organised initiatives such as “Lens Studio meet-ups” in cities like Surat, Coimbatore, Rajkot, Trichy, Trivandrum and Gwalior to train developers in building their first AR lenses. In total, Snapchat claims to have hosted 120 “meetups” in 2024 that saw attendance by more than 6,000 AR developers.
Snapchat also said that it is working with various Indian educational institutions to “nurture talent” in the Indian mixed reality (MR) space.
The event in Mumbai also saw the company debuting its fifth-generation see-through AR glasses,
This comes a week after the Nasdaq-listed social media juggernaut elevated Asia Pacific (APAC) president Ajit Mohan to the role of its new chief business officer (CBO).
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