PicsArt on the Gartner Hype Cycle

http://

Gartner, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is based in Stamford, CT.  It is an information technology research and advisory company.  The Gartner Hype Cycle was introduced by an analyst named Jackie Fenn in 1995 and includes five phases in which technology may fall depending on its development or life cycle stage, similar to the marketing concept of product life cycle.  These five phases include technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, and plateau of productivity.  Learn more about the Gartner Hype Cycle here:  https://www.cleverism.com/everything-need-know-gartner-hype-cycle/

PicsArt was founded in 2011.  PicsArt is headquartered in San Francisco and has a major office in Yeravan, Armenia.  It was started about five years ago by founder and CEO Hovhaness Avoyan.   It currently employs two hundred people in Armenia and twenty five in San Francisco.  In my opinion, PicsArt is in the slope of enlightenment phase moving into the plateau of productivity.  The slope of enlightenment is a phase in which third-generation products, outside the box products, and product suites are being developed.  The plateau of productivity phase represents widespread usage and adoption. The plateau of productivity is a growth phase in which twenty to thirty percent of the potential audience has adopted use of the product.  The reason I feel this way in terms of its location on the Gartner Hype Cycle is its one of several photo editing social media apps on the market.  Photo editing social media apps have been available for several years now so it’s past the technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, and trough of disillusionment phases.  As Steve Goldner stated in his article A Hype Cycle View of Social Media regarding all social media, “The bubble of inflated expectations has been burst.  The age of enlightenment and productivity starts now.”   Although photo editing social media apps have been available for awhile now, there are no major ones exactly like PicsArt.  This is why I would put it in the slope of enlightenment phase.  Users are still discovering it.  It’s not as widely known as Instagram or Snapchat.  Although it’s not as widely recognized as some more popular photo editing and sharing apps, it is pretty well known.  It has eighty million monthly users and more than three hundred million installs. The CEO himself stated, “We’re on a growth part.  We’re not looking at acquisition” and also stated, “Our biggest competitor is Instagram.”  In 2014, venture firm Sequoia Capital invested ten million dollars into PicArt.  Sequoia Capital is the same venture firm that invested in Instagram.  PicsArt generates revenue from ads, sales (you can purchase various stickers, fonts, etc. through PicsArt), and sponsorships.