Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) q4 figures beat market expectations, causing shares to bounce on Wednesday.
The owner of Snapchat said that daily active users were flat in the fourth quarter at 186 million, offering some respite to investors after two quarters of consecutive decline.
Analysts had been expecting a fall in users for the final quarter of the year.
Chief Executive Evan Spiegel, commented: “We are substantially closer to achieving profitability, as we have maintained a relatively flat cost structure across the past five quarters while growing full-year revenue 43 per cent year-over-year,”
Snap Inc has been struggling since its floatation on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017, amid a declining user base, with its share price falling to an all-time low in September.
Whilst initially immensely popular, Snapchat users have fallen in recent years amid fierce competition from other social media platforms such as Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook-owned (NASDAQ:FB) Instagram.
The introduction of the Instagram story feature in particular proved problematic for Snapchat, bearing similarities to its messaging platform.
As a result, Snap Inc has failed to successfully differentiate itself from its competitors.
Whilst Snap Inc have accordingly attempted to shift their focus away from the App, rebranding as a “camera company”, its other products have not proved as commercially popular.
Its first version of Spectacles, a pair of smart glasses that permits video recording, only sold 220,000 pairs.
Moreover, various senior officials have departed the firm in recent months.
Most recently, the firm’s CFO Tim Stone announced his departure in January, having only joined Snap from Amazon 8 months prior.
Human resources chief, Jason Halbert, Vice President of Marketing Steve LaBella and Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan have all left the company in the last year.
Shares in Snap Inc are currently +1.73% as of 12:19PM (GMT), on the back of the announcement.
