In its first financial earnings announcement since its IPO, Snap Inc has failed to meet analyst expectations, following the well-trodden path of Facebook and Twitter, and resulting in a 20% drop in share price after the earnings call.
Snap reported US$150 million in total revenue in the quarter, up 286% from US$39 million a year ago. Its earnings (EBITDA) increased by 102% to US$93 million and average revenue per user rose 181% year on year to 90 cents - down from $1.05 in the previous quarter.
After nearly $2 billion in stock-based payouts were stripped out, the business reported a $2.2 billion loss.
Snap Inc reported a rise in daily active users to 166 million, up 36% from 122 million a year earlier, but not a huge increase since the IPO, and well below the 200 million users of Instagram Stories.
Snap has been diversifying the opportunities within its Snapchat app to drive revenue, adding its 'Shows' feature to allow broadcasters and media partners to develop short TV-like content, as it looks to attract TV advertising dollars.
It says Shows is attracting audiences of around 8 million people. It is airing one per day currently, although the aim is to have more.
During the investor call, CEO Evan Spiegel also took the opportunity to throw scorn on Facebook's relentless copycat strategy, dubbing it the Yahoo to its Google and suggesting it will win out as the dominant platform.
“At the end of the day, just because Yahoo is a search box, it doesn't mean it's Google," he told investors.
"You have to get comfortable with the fact that people are going to copy you if you make great stuff."
Snap also split out 'other' revenue coming from non-advertising services, which is largely its Spectacles wearable glasses.
Other revenue doubled to US$8.3 million compared to the same quarter a year before, but many reports are suggesting sales of Spectacles were relatively soft, compared with the hype around them. Just 5 million Snaps have been taken using spectacles - there are 3billion snaps on the Snapchat app daily.
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