Snapchat’s Q1 2018 earnings report is all kinds of sad

Facebook’s F8 conference brought with it some bad news for Snap Inc’s Snapchat.

The yellow ephemeral messaging company announced its Q1 2018 earnings Tuesday, and the numbers are overshadowed by its rivals.

Amidst a controversial UI redesign that saw protests across the web, Snapchat now harbours 191-million daily active users. That’s an increase of 4-million globally, and just 1-million from within the US’s borders.

WhatsApp Status and Instagram Stories on the other hand — both Snapchat clones younger than the service itself — both boast more than 300-million daily active users.

The revenue Snap makes off each user has dropped by some 21% in this quarter too, even if that particular number — US$1.21 — is up by 34% over Q1 2017.

Snapchat also missed its revenue estimates, pulling in just US$230-million in the first three months of the year. And even though that’s 54% up year-over-year, Wall Street expected about US$15-million more.

And more damning still is the company’s losses column. More than US$380-million was written off the company’s books this quarter.

So what does this all mean?

For one, Snap has stolen the honour from Twitter as the tech company behind the most depressing financial statements. Secondly, the company’s in a bit of trouble.

It’s not clear how it can right the ship either, considering that its rivals are in a tremendously stronger position in terms of financial and user growth. Additionally, Snap’s hardware ambitions haven’t really taken off as it would’ve liked either.

But at least it’s doing something.

An app redesign is set to hit Snapchat users’ phones soon, with users’ Stories tab now moving back in with Discover.

Feature image: Memeburn