Snapchat's user base is loyal, but that might not be enough
Snapchat maker Snap issued its first earnings report as a public company on Wednesday, and, well, it could've gone better. The company's stock plunged about 24% in after-hours trading, as of this writing, after revenues were lower than expected and, most importantly, user growth slowed.
Snap says it added 8 million daily Snapchatters this past quarter - that's good for a 36% year-over-year increase, and it's a higher number than last quarter, but it's down from the 52% increase in DAUs it had this time last year.
One thing Snap could point to as a moderate success, though, is how Snapchat users appear to be more loyal than most. An App Annie report from last week found that a significant chunk of Snapchat users in the US, Snap's main market, don't use other social media and messaging platforms on a given day. As this chart from Statista shows, 46% of those users say they don't use Snapchat's chief rival, Instagram.
Unfortunately for Snap, Instagram has 700 million monthly users, while Snapchat has 166 million daily users. And Instagram's Stories feature - which is trying to squash Snapchat by more or less ripping it off - is already said to have 200 million daily users itself.
The fact that many Snapchat users are sticking with Snapchat is valuable. It is still growing, after all, and CEO Evan Spiegel made it clear on Wednesday that he's focused on the long-term. But if you see an uptick in pessimism toward Snap over the next few days, this'll be a big part of it.
