By Sheila Dang
(Reuters) -Snap Inc on Tuesday swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter and said revenue could decline in the current quarter by as much as 10% as it faces fierce competition from rivals like TikTok and weak advertising demand.
Shares of Snap fell 13% to $10.30 in trading after the bell. Meta shares fell 2% and Alphabet dropped 1%. Pinterest dropped 5%.
The owner of photo messaging app Snapchat is the first of the major digital advertising platforms to report quarterly results, which often provide an early signal for platforms like Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet’s Google, which report results this week.
In a letter to investors, Snap said a weakening economy, increased competition from other social media platforms and “platform policy changes” continued to hurt its business.
Apple began rolling out privacy changes on iPhones in 2021 that have limited advertisers’ ability to collect data for targeted advertising.
HEADWINDS PERSIST
“We expect the headwinds we have faced over the past year to persist throughout Q1,” the company said in a letter to investors.
Revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 was $1.3 billion, flat from the prior-year and in line with analyst expectations.
Snap’s net loss was $288 million during the quarter, versus net income of $23 million the previous year. It reported adjusted earnings per share of 14 cents, beating Wall Street estimates of 11 cents.
Snap will host an investor day on Feb. 16 to detail its plan to move forward after announcing in August that it would lay off 20% of its staff and discontinue experimental projects like a drone camera to cut costs.
The tech sector has been hammered in recent months amid record-high inflation and expectations of a recession.
Shares of the Santa Monica, California-based company are down 65% over the past year.
It said it now has more than 2 million subscribers to its premium product Snapchat+, which Snap launched last year in an effort to develop a new revenue source.
Daily active users on Snapchat rose 17% year-over-year to 375 million, beating analyst expectations of 374 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
In its letter to investors, the company said its internal forecast assumes a 2% to 10% revenue decline in the first quarter compared to a year ago, and said revenue is currently down 7% so far in the quarter.
Snap forecast daily active users in the first quarter between 382 million and 384 million.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in DallasEditing by Nick Zieminski)
