Snap reported its slowest quarterly sales growth ever, saying that a decline in advertising spending on the platform continues to drag on results.
Snap fell more than 25 per cent in after-hours trading. The shares have fallen 77 per cent this year.
The maker of the Snapchat app said third-quarter sales increased 6 per cent to $1.13 billion. That was just shy of analysts’ average estimate of $1.14 billion, according to projections compiled by Bloomberg.
The social media company spent the quarter shrinking and refocusing its business, announcing in August that it was cutting a fifth of its workforce and slashing projects that don’t contribute to user or revenue growth, or to the company’s augmented reality efforts. The changes were in response to plunging sales, which Snap attributed to a slowdown in marketer spending.
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Revenue growth “continues to be impacted by a number of factors we have noted throughout the past year, including platform policy changes, macroeconomic headwinds, and increased competition,” Snap said in its prepared remarks for investors. “We are finding that our advertising partners across many industries are decreasing their marketing budgets, especially in the face of operating environment headwinds, inflation-driven cost pressures, and rising costs of capital.”
The Snapchat app, popular with young people for sending disappearing messages and augmenting videos with special effects, added 57 million daily active users in the quarter, for a total of 363 million. That topped the 358.7 million estimate. Still, Snap’s average revenue per user slid 11 per cent to $3.11, missing the $3.19 average analyst projection.
The company is prioritising efforts that can boost revenue. In the third quarter, Snap grew its nascent subscription service, Snapchat+, to 1.5 million users who pay for early access to exclusive or pre-release features, Snap said. The app maker has also been investing in improving measurement tools for ads on its platform.
Investors will be watching Santa Monica, California-based Snap for clues on the performance of other advertising-dependent social media businesses. Next week, Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. report earnings.
Snap and platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google are competing for a shrinking pool of advertising dollars this year. Spiralling inflation is putting pressure on companies and consumer spending. Meanwhile, new rules from Apple Inc. that require all apps to get smartphone users’ permission to be tracked online have made it more difficult for advertisers to measure and manage their ad campaigns.
Snap posted a net loss of $360 million in the quarter, or 22 cents per share. The loss includes $155 million in restructuring costs. — Bloomberg
