Snapchat unveiled its results for the first quarter of 2022 on April 21. The social network did not reach the sales and profit forecasts hoped for by Wall Street. On the other hand, the company has seen a nice increase in its daily users, higher than Facebook and Twitter.
A quarter slightly below forecasts
The photo and video sharing application announced that it registered 332 million daily active users during the first quarter of the year against 280 million last year at the same period. This represents an increase of 18%. It is outside of North America and Europe, two key regions, that the increase is the most significant: 36% with 150 million active users every day. This growth is particularly significant in India, thanks to the democratization of smartphones among the population.
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The company’s revenue increased 38%, compared to the first quarter of 2021, reaching $1.06 billion. A little below the forecasts of Refinitiv experts who expected 1.07 billion dollars in turnover. The previous year, at the same time, Snapchat’s revenue was $770 million.
The social network also announces a net loss of 360 million dollars against 287 million last year. Spotlight, the TikTok-like app’s short video sharing feature, saw its usage time explode by +230% compared to 2021.
The influence of the war in Ukraine
Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, has describe this first trimester as ” harder than expected “. The war in Ukraine has greatly slowed down or even canceled the campaigns organized by advertisers on the application.
” In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, we watched many of our advertisers pause their campaigns. The vast majority of our clients resumed their campaigns within 10 days of the invasion. Average daily earnings in March exceeded pre-invasion levels. However, the year-over-year growth rate remained below pre-invasion levels, at around 32% from February 24 to the end of the first quarter. says Derek Andersen, CFO of Snapchat.
Snap has released $5 million to support its Ukraine-based members. A country that matters to the company. Looksery, the company that built the technical foundations of the app’s augmented reality platform was founded in Ukraine before being relocated to San Francisco, USA.
Snapchat still relies on augmented reality
Augmented reality is a strategic area at Snapchat. The California-based company said 250 million people use it every day with augmented reality filters. A significant figure on the 332 million daily users.
The social network recently launched “ASL Alphabet,” a series of augmented reality filters for learning sign language using advanced hand and gesture recognition technology. ” We believe augmented reality belongs everywhere, not just on Snapchat “, explains Evan Spiegel.
Snapchat relies heavily on Spectacles, its connected glasses and Camera Kit to develop its augmented reality sector. ” With our powerful developer tools in Lens Studio, and distribution through Snapchat, Camera Kit, and Spectacles, we’ve created an engaging platform for creators to create and share augmented reality experiences. “, adds the co-founder of the application.
For the year 2022, Snapchat is aiming for a 20% to 25% increase in profits. ” We reach nearly half of smartphones in the US and nearly 75% of 13-34 year olds in over 20 countries “, explains Jeremi Gorman, general manager of business. ” Today, we represent less than 2% of the $210 billion U.S. digital advertising market, and less than 1% of the estimated $520 billion market.. » An encouraging development perspective.