Snapchat just grew for the first time in a year
Is it too soon to call this a turnaround? Maybe, but things are starting to look up for Snap.
The company just reported its results for the first quarter of 2019 and delivered investors some long overdue good news: Snapchat added new users for the first time in a year.
The app now counts 190 million daily active users (DAUs), up from 186 million last quarter. Overall, DAUs are still down from its previous peak of 191 million, but the new growth suggests the company has been able to reverse the momentum caused by an unpopular redesign last year.
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Snap also delivered better than expected financial results, with $320 million in revenue, up 39 percent from the same time last year. The company still has a ways to go before it becomes profitable, but Snap isn't losing quite as much money as analysts had predicted.
CEO Evan Spiegel said Snap's ad business is now more effective at reaching young people in the United States than longtime rival Instagram. "As of March, our ads can now reach more 13-34 year-olds than Instagram in the United States," he said in prepared remarks. Snapchat reaches 75 percent of all 13-34 year-olds in the U.S, the company says.
Snap is also growing outside of the U.S. and Europe, its two most popular markets. Snapchat added 2 million new users outside of North America and Europe.
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Spiegel noted that Snap has finally rolled out its long awaited Android app redesign, calling it the "price of admission" to international markets, though he cautioned it will take time before the improved app is reflected in user metrics.
Snapchat's slow, buggy Android app was long seen as a major weakness for the company, which has spent years rebuilding the app.
The CEO also called out Snapchat's new gaming platform and the company's Discover section, which recently added a new lineup of original shows. "In Q1, nearly half of our daily Discover viewers watched Discover every day of the week," Spiegel said.
Snap does still have other problems to worry about, like the unusually high number of executive departures, (the company still doesn't have a permanent CFO after former Amazon veteran Tim Stone abruptly left in January). But its latest results prove the app isn't done growing just yet.
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