Snapchat, meet Snow: Korea’s rival app makes waves in Asia

While Snapchat is satisfying the West’s need for self-centered video snippets, South Korea’s rival app does much of the same.

Developed by Line Messenger creator Naver, Snow is practically a clone of Snapchat, and allows users to post snippets of annoying videos and lace them with wacky filters.

“Take videos with hilarious face effects and send them to your friends instantly. You can respond to snaps from friends with texts and animated GIFs as well. LIVE makes sharing your moments with friends easy, speedy and fun,” explains the app’s description on Google Play.

Users can also add images and the like to their Story, which remain viewable for 72-hours, as opposed to Snapchat’s 24.

But even if it’s much of the same, one can’t question its current popularity.

According to a New York Times report, the app has been downloaded over 30-million times already since its debut in September 2015, and it’s looking to the world’s biggest internet market for its next phase of expansion. In China, Snapchat’s banned, but Snow isn’t. That means Snow has access to around 720-million users in a single market, and more importantly, access to 720-million users the likes of Snapchat can’t access.

Related: Snapchat’s now more popular than Twitter, according to report

In terms of its rivalry with Snapchat, it might boast the same UI, but some are taking to Snow’s differences: “This is like snapchat just that it has more filters to play with which is awesome😇😇!! I usually just play and save it and post it in insta !!!! [sic]” a Google Play comment explains.

As for the general quality of Snow itself, the app boasts a 4.0 rating on Google Play from around 120 000 votes, while the iOS version has a four-star rating from 233 votes.

While Snapchat also shows no signs of slowing down, it’s novelty among teenagers is clearly wearing thin. More 25 to 34-year-olds are joining the service, rising from 19% in December 2014 to 38% in May 2016, a recent report from comScore (spotted by WSJ).

But not everything is rosy for Snow though: “Garbage app worse then snapchat It didn’t work this app sucks also screwed up my phone [sic],” another comment explains.

We’ll be reviewing the app in the coming weeks and providing our definitive opinion on Snapchat’s latest rival, but if you fancy giving Snow a spin for yourself, it’s available on both Android and iOS, and let us know what you think in the comments below.