Snapchat, no longer bleeding users, tests Android app redesign
Snap is finally starting to turn things around.
Snapchat's growth has finally stabilized after two straight quarters of losing users, following an unpopular redesign. What's more, the company is making substantially more money off the users it does have, the company revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report for 2018.
Snap reported $390 million in revenue, an increase of 36 percent from last year, and $10 million above the high end of its own projections for the quarter.
Meanwhile, Snapchat's user growth held steady at 186 million daily active users, the same as last quarter. That's still down from the 191 million it counted this time last year, but this shows the app has been able to reverse what's been its most worrying trend.
The company's interim CFO, Lara Sweet, said Snap is "cautiously optimistic" about future growth going into next quarter. Sweet didn't provide any specific numbers, but said the company isn't anticipating another decline.
Snap also shared an update on its long-awaited Android app redesign, which could be a key factor in future growth. After teasing the update for more than a year, CEO Evan Spiegel now says it has started to test the app with a "small percentage" of its users. Snap has previously blamed its slow and buggy Android app for hindering growth outside of the U.S.
"Our engineering team remains focused on rebuilding our Android application to improve performance and quality. Early tests show promising results especially on less performant devices, including a 20 percent reduction in the average time it takes to open Snapchat," Spiegel said. "Given these results, we have started rolling out the new version to a small percentage of our community, and we look forward to providing an improved Android experience to more devices and regions over time."
Spiegel repeatedly dodged questions about exact timing of the redesign, but noted the company has shifted significant resources toward the project internally.
Snapchat's advertising business is also showing positive signs, despite not adding any new users. "We are now able to reach 70 percent of the total 13 to 34 year‐old U.S. population with premium mobile video ads on a monthly basis," Spiegel said.
The CEO also teased an upcoming revamp for Discover, which is central to Snap's ad business. Spiegel said an upcoming update would make the page easier to navigate, as the current Discover page is like walking around a supermarket "without the aisles labeled," he said.
Topics Snapchat Social Media
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
