Snapchat might be dying. And Facebook could be the thing that’s killing it.
The site has reported stalling user numbers and tumbling profits, leading to fears that the once-hyped app is gradually dying. Instagram’s stories, for instance, steal the most famous part of Snapchat – and it has had success doing so, with the feature now boasting more users than Snapchat in total.
Facebook, which once tried to buy Snapchat but was rejected, has instead spent its time taking the yellow app’s most popular features. And it appears to be working.
The company announced overnight that its revenues were growing by only a small amount, and sent its shares into free fall. That continued a decline that has been going on since it first offered its shares for sale to the public.
Snapchat became famous – and highly-valued – on the back of a range of innovative features. Chief among them were disappearing images and stories, where photos could be temporarily shared, and both of those have been taken by Facebook companies.
Instagram recently said that Stories, which lets people share videos and snapshots in a continuous 24-hour loop, has amassed 250 million daily users in the year since it launched.
Snapchat, in comparison, had 173 million in the second quarter — and that’s all of Snapchat, not just its version of Stories. Instagram in its entirety, meanwhile, had more than 400 million daily users as of February, the last official count.
Snap said Thursday that it lost $443 million, or 36 cents per share, in the second quarter. That compares with a loss of $116 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew to $182 million, more than double the $72 million a year earlier but below analysts’ expectations.
“Facebook has proven themselves to be a fierce competitor ,” Gartner analyst Brian Blau said. Facebook, he added, understands how to get more and more people to sign up and keep using its services.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has long defended the company’s decision not to make user growth its primary mission. He doesn’t even like calling Snapchat a social network; he insists it’s a camera company.
Credit: The independent