Snapchat announces first ever decline in user base – shedding 300 million in one quarter
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Snapchat saw its first ever decline in daily active users last quarter, the company blamed its infamously unpopular platform redesign for the drop.
“We feel that we have now addressed the biggest frustrations we’ve heard,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on an earnings call with investors. Snap, Snapchat’s parent, reported the image sharing platform’s user base shrank by three million during Q2 of 2018 – only two years prior, Snapchat reported that its user base had grown by 21 million in daily active users.
Although Snapchat blamed the platform’s unpopular redesign – aimed at distinguishing user content from branded and celebrity content – the company failed to acknowledge mass adoption of its competitor’s Instagram Stories. Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has amassed over 400 million daily active users, over taking Snapchat in 2017.
“We now have to show more of the right content to the right people,” continued Spiegel.
This week, Roadshow Films and OMD partnered with Snapchat in Australia to promote Warner Bros. Pictures’ upcoming film, The Meg. Using Snapchat’s ‘Sky Segmentation’.
The partnership is set to produce a sponsored augmented reality Snapchat Lens, designed to make users surroundings appear submerged underwater. The Lens will be available across Australia for only Saturday 11 August.
According to AdAge, two years ago Snapchat would charge US brands between US$300,000 (AU$409,913) and US$500,000 (AU$683,188) to create sponsored Lenses on the platform. Although according to reports, Australian clients are charged significantly lower.
Not only has Snapchat’s user base shrunk globally, however, user figures fell significantly in its primary market, North America. Recode reports that Snapchat’s North American daily active users declined from 81 million to 80 million in Q1 of 2018.
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