* Snapchat lost $2.2 billion last quarter
* CEO Evan Spiegel made rare public comments in conference
* Spiegel dismisses grave future for Snapchat with confident tone
Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel is hitting back at claims that the social media app is not meeting expectations after a surprising quarterly earnings report showed the young company lost $2.2 billion last quarter. As we’ve reported, two of Snapchat’s biggest rivals, Facebook and Instagram have both unveiled new live video features called “stories” to their platforms, that conspicuously mimic the Snapchat model.
In a first-earnings conference, the 26-year old—and notoriously private—Spiegel addressed the report of the company’s poor health as its stock fell by 25% during trading hours. When asked to comment on Facebook’s recent addition of the Snap-inspired stories, Spiegel sharply replied, “If you want to be a creative company, you have got to be comfortable with and enjoy the fact that people copy your products if you make great stuff,” he said. “Just because Yahoo! has a search box doesn’t mean they’re Google.” Fair enough.
Regardless, $2.2 billion is a pretty staggering loss that seems to warrant some concern, especially seeing as the loss is double the amount of last year’s. But while some analysts partially attribute the loss to growing trends in users switching over to Instagram for its all-inclusive in-app features, the bigger cause is likely related to the $2 billion compensation cost of going public in March.
Either way, Snapchat seems to have plans in the works to keep growing despite the substantial setback. Just this week Snapchat launched new features to the app, including adding a new infinite setting on the timer that allows friends to enjoy the content for as long as they like instead of for a set duration. Other updates include additions to the creative tool bar and looping settings.
Spiegel maintained his famously tight-lipped demeanor with a brazen tone of confidence during the conference–especially when prompted about plans of expansion for the app going forward. “I think, at this point, we’re kind of famous for not giving guidance on the product pipeline,” he said. “But we’re obviously really excited about it and we love surprising our community.”
