Snapchat’s star on the rise as it adds 13m new users


24 Jul 2019

Snapchat. Image: Pe3check/Depositphotos

Parent company Snap has narrowed losses and boosted user numbers for its popular app.

Snapchat added 13m daily active users in the last quarter, as the messaging app reported in its latest financial results.

The multimedia message platform’s parent company, Snap Inc, said users rose in the last three months to 203m. This is an 8pc increase on the 190m daily users reported in the last quarter and the 188m the app had this time last year.

The company also reported an increase in revenue to $388m, up 48pc on this time last year.

Co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said the company now had to build on its results. “The growth in our community, engagement and revenue is the result of several transitions we completed over the past 18 months,” he said.

“We look forward to building on our momentum and making significant ongoing progress in each of these areas.”

Out with the old

Earlier this year, the company launched a redesigned version of its Android app, which has been made smaller and faster.

As a result, the company said, it is now seeing Android users send 7pc more ‘snaps’ compared to the old version of the app. It added that the average number of snaps created each day had now grown to more than 3.5bn.

The social media platform does continue to make a loss, however, though this has improved by $53m compared to last year, to $305m.

Industry expert Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, said: “It’s great to see Snap showing strong signs of growth this quarter.

“Clearly the relaunch of the Android app has had a meaningful impact on the Q2 user figures, especially outside of the US and Europe, where the Android operating system is especially popular.

“The popular face filters have also helped drive usage and engagement. Now, the challenge is to convince those newly added users to stick around and continue to use Snapchat on an ongoing basis.

“As long as it continues to roll out compelling new features, [it] will do that.”

– PA Media

Snapchat. Image: Pe3check/Depositphotos