Snapchat’s owner publishes its latest chapter of troubling financial results

Judging by its latest batch of financial results, Snap is seemingly driven to outdo Twitter as one of the worst performing social media companies of the year.

This week the owner of Snapchat published its Q2 2017 earnings report, and it missed a number of Wall Street estimates.

Let’s start with those all important user numbers.

While Instagram earlier this year announced user numbers topping 700-million, with 250-million using Instagram Stories, Snapchat added just seven million users this quarter. That growth rate is down by 0.8% from 5% growth of the previous quarter.

In terms of a global breakdown for Q2 2017, it added four million users from North America, two million from Europe and another two million from the “rest of the world”.

Estimates projected 175-million daily active users at the end of the quarter, but Snapchat is now home to just 173-million.

Snapchat’s daily active user number now stands at 173m, well below Instagram Stories’ 250m

Snap also missed its revenue estimates of US$185-million by just US$4-million this quarter.

Moreover, its losses are continuing to spike. It lost US$443-million in Q2 2017 alone, compared to Q2 2016’s loss of just over US$155-million.

Looking at the larger picture, there are some notable positives.

Snap did increase its total revenue when comparing Q2 2016 to Q2 2017 by over 150%. Additionally, it seems that Publisher Stories — the platform for brands to publish their snaps — is becoming increasingly popular, with a 30% increase in views over Q1 2017.

Additionally, its introduction of Snap Map earlier this year has also contributed to the number of snaps published.

Nevertheless, no amount of cherry-picking could save Snap from worried traders. The company’s share price has since tanked about 14% during after-hours trading.

Feature image: Wilson Yang via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)