Today’s news from Wall Street — its first-ever earnings report as a publicly traded company — was not great for Snapchat and its fearless leader Evan Spiegel. User growth on the app seems to have slowed markedly: During the first quarter — so, that’s the first three months of 2017 — Snapchat reports 8 million new daily users, making for a 36 percent year-on-year growth compared to Q1 2016. Which is good, sure, but means the company has only picked up 8 million users since going public, an event which, if you’re Evan Spiegel, should have meant a significantly larger bump.
Snap’s revenue also fell short of industry expectations, reporting a Q1 revenue of $149.65 million, nearly $10 million off the expected $157.98 million. As for the company’s stock, which was expected to drop $1.92 per share, shares fell $2.31. The company’s net loss for the quarter came in at $2.2 billion.
If you’re Snapchat, today’s report looks … fine, if less fine than one might have hoped. The company certainly isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But if you’re an investor hoping for big returns, or a sign of short-term gains, today’s news should signal that you’re not going to be getting what you wanted.
Follow the less-than-stellar report, Spiegel hopped on the call with investors, noting Snap users are now sending 3 billion snaps per day, an increase of half a billion from last quarter. When asked if Facebook — a company which has cannibalized much of Snapchat’s ephemeral platform to great success in recent months — scares him, Spiegel was quick to rebuke the question. “Just because Yahoo has a search box doesn’t mean they’re Google,” he said. A great line, and kudos to whoever workshopped that zinger, but only time will tell if it’s actually true. Snap stock closed at $22 today but dropped by 20 percent on the NASDAQ after hours.
