Everyone’s favourite enfant terrible network Snapchat might be posed to grow up, or at least grow a lot richer, in 2016.

Once known as the realm of self-destructing selfies and sometimes saucy content, Snapchat is amping up its bells and whistles for brands this year.

Read on to find out what’s in store for the snap.

Snapshot

Snapchat was developed in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown when all three were students at Stanford University.

The platform was actually the product of a class project, and was first known as Picaboo.

Oh Snap

Snapchat now has 200 million daily active users. And they’re a very engaged bunch, with 65% posting “Snaps” daily.

Most Snapchatters are aged between 13 and 23, and 70% are female.

Besides the US, Ireland is the country where snapping is most popular.

Photo bomb

Every day over 2 billion photos are viewed on Snapchat.

However this pales in comparison with videos, which are viewed 7 billion times every day on the platform.

The most common content shared are pictures of food and beverages – however 15% of users admit sending snaps of their private parts.

Ad man

In 2015 Snapchat began to get serious about monetisation. It launched Live Stories, which allowed brands to sell placements or present a Snapchat Story.

Snapchat has also just signed a lucrative deal with Viacom, which might prove the tipping point from upstart to mainstream.

And in case your were wondering, Snapchat’s mascot does indeed have a name: Ghostface Chillah.

The name is inspired by Wu-Tang Clan’s track Ghostface Killah.