Snap Inc.
Snap Inc. operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and snaps. It also provides Snapchat+, Lens+, and Snapchat Platinum, a subscription service that provides subscribers access to exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features; Spectacles, an augmented reality (AR) glasses; and advertising products, including AR ads and Snap ads comprises a single image or video ads, collection ads, dynamic ads, story ads, commercials, sponsored snaps, and promoted places. In addition, the company offers campaign management and delivery, an advertising platform that provides automated, sophisticated, and scalable ad buying and campaign management; and measuring advertising effectiveness solutions. The company was formerly known as Snapchat, Inc. and changed its name to Snap Inc. in September 2016. Snap Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
What does it do?
Snap Inc. makes Snapchat, the app where photos and videos disappear after you view them. Think of it as a camera-first messaging app — you open it straight to the camera, snap a photo or short video, and send it to friends. It also has Stories (posts that last 24 hours), Spotlight (a TikTok-style feed of viral videos), and Snap Map (a live map showing where your friends are). Snapchat+ is a paid subscription that gives users early access to new features, like custom app icons or seeing who rewatched your story.
Snap reaches over 400 million daily users, and roughly 90% of 13-24 year olds in the US use Snapchat — making it one of the most direct pipelines to young consumers on the planet. Advertisers desperately want to reach Gen Z, so Snap's ability to monetize that audience is a constant focus for the market. Right now, the question investors are asking is whether Snap can grow its ad revenue fast enough to finally become consistently profitable.
How does it make money?
Snap makes almost all of its money from digital advertising — brands pay to show ads between Stories, in Spotlight, or as augmented reality (AR) lenses you can interact with. In its latest year, Snap brought in $5.9 billion in revenue, up from $5.4 billion the prior year, showing roughly 9% growth. A small but growing slice of revenue comes from Snapchat+, its subscription service, which had over 11 million paying subscribers as of early 2024. Despite the revenue, Snap is still losing money, posting a net loss of around $500 million last year.
Why do investors care?
The bull case for Snap is that it owns a loyal, hard-to-reach young audience and is still in the early stages of figuring out how to monetize it properly. Snap has been rebuilding its ad platform after Apple's 2021 privacy changes (which made it much harder for apps to track users and show targeted ads) wrecked its business — and there are early signs that rebuild is working. If Snap can grow ad revenue per user closer to where Meta is, even a fraction of that gap closing could mean dramatically higher profits. The company also has a real bet on augmented reality, with its Spectacles smart glasses, which could open up an entirely new revenue stream.
Deep Dive
MemberA full investor briefing on Snap Inc. — history, leadership, risks, and outlook.