Snap stock fell 25% after reporting its third-quarter earnings on Thursday. The company’s revenue missed Wall Street expectations after its advertising business was disrupted by privacy changes Apple introduced earlier this year.
Here’s what Snap reported versus Wall Street’s estimates:
- Adjusted earnings per share: 17 cents vs. 8 cents by Refinitiv
- Revenue: $1.07 billion vs. $1.10 billion forecast by Refinitiv
- Global daily active users (DAUs): 306 million vs. 301.8 million per StreetAccount
- Average revenue per user (ARPU): $3.49 vs. $3.67 per StreetAccount
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel praised Apple’s consumer-friendly changes on CNBC in February, when he also warned they posed a risk to Q4 earnings, but said on Thursday the iPhone’s privacy settings impacted Snap’s advertising business more than anticipated.
“While we anticipated some degree of business disruption, the new Apple-provided measurement solution did not scale as we had expected, making it more difficult for our advertising partners to measure and manage their ad campaigns for iOS,” Spiegel said in his prepared remarks.
Shares of social media rivals Facebook and Twitter were each down nearly 7% in after-hours trading following the release of Snap’s third quarter earnings, showing investors may fear similar impact on their financial results.
Spiegel also warned that global supply chain interruptions and labor shortages reduces the “short-term appetite to generate additional customer demand through advertising.”
Snap CFO Derek Andersen warned that between Apple’s privacy changes, supply chain interruptions and labor shortages, the company expects its fourth-quarter revenue to come in between $1.16 billion and $1.20 billion. That’s short of the $1.36 billion in revenue that analysts were expecting for the fourth quarter, according to Refinitiv.
“Unfortunately, these changes are occurring during a season when our advertising partners would normally expect their supply chains to be operating at peak capacity, and at a time when we would otherwise expect peak advertising demand to drive peak contestation, and therefore peak pricing, in our auction,” Andersen said in his prepared remarks.
Snap’s net loss narrowed 64% to $72 million, from a loss of $200 million a year ago.
“While it is difficult to predict the trajectory of these challenges, the growth of our audience, the adoption of our new products and platforms by our community, and the underlying efficacy of our advertising products for performance advertisers gives us confidence in the future of our business and our ability to navigate this environment as we continue to invest in our long-term vision,” Spiegel said.
Snap reported 306 million daily active users, up more than 4% from the 293 million the company reported in April. That figure is up nearly 23% compared with the 249 million daily users the company reported a year prior.
The company expects to reach between 316 million and 318 million DAUs in the fourth quarter, the company said in its prepared remarks. That came in ahead of the 311.8 million daily active users analysts were expecting for the fourth quarter, according to StreetAccount.