Snap Inc. execs did their best to spin the company’s second straight lifeless quarter on its Thursday earnings call, but shares of the Snapchat parent continue to jackknife in after hours trading.
Shares quickly darted down about 13 percent after Snap posted underwhelming revenue and slowing user growth in its second quarter. And as CEO Evan Spiegel and Snap’s braintrust took to the mic, it did little to curb investors’ concerns, with Snap falling another 3 percent to new all-time lows of $11.55 a share.
Spiegel looked to squash those fears, saying he and CTO Bobby Murphy ” will not be selling any of our shares this year.” He then added the two execs “”believe deeply in the long-term success of Snap.”
But it didn’t stem the tide, and was likely offset by Spiegel highlighting Snapchat’s dancing animated hot dog as “the world’s first augmented reality superstar” — with more than 1.5 billion views. Frankly, he’s probably spot-on in his assessment, but shareholders were looking for more concrete ways for Snapchat to combat its continued assault from Instagram.
Snap added 7 million daily active users during Q2, a million short of the DAUs it added in its first quarter. Snap now has 173 million daily users — a far cry from Instagram Stories’ 250 million DAUs.