As it prepares for the crowdfunding, Snap’s Q4 shows revenue growth but fewer daily users

Snap has a goal of transforming its revenue stream — from a business model where it drives advertising revenue to one where it can also monetize subscriptions, and eventually, hardware. The company’s most recent report shows that, so far, the company is doing very well with this strategy.

In Q4, Snap’s revenue it was $1.7 billionwhich increases by 10% per year. Its average revenue per user also rose, slightly (to $3.62 from $3.44). The company’s net income was $45 million, up from $9 million last year, an earnings report shows.

The company continued to make more money from Snap+, the platform’s premium payment service it is also set for 2022. The service’s subscribers grew by 71% year-on-year, reaching 24 million.

While these figures may seem to indicate that the company is moving in the right direction, the financial report also shows that the platform had fewer daily users last quarter – down from 477 million to 474 million. The number of users fell in North America and Europe, the report shows, while growing slightly in the rest of the world.

Reuters also reports that the company expects that the revenue it earned in the first quarter of this year will be less than what analysts estimated, since the competition from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will reduce its revenue from marketing.

On Wednesday, CEO Evan Spiegel focused on what the company has to offer, including its latest efforts pay users for Memory storage – a feature that allows users to save and save their Snaps – and its plans to launch Specs later this year. The company has not launched a public display of augmented-reality glasses since 2019. In anticipation of the event, Snap recently announced the creation of a new company, Specs Inc., which focuses on the manufacture of glasses.

“Our long-term vision continues to move beyond the mobile phone into a future where computing is natural, embedded and integrated into the real world,” Spiegel said. The CEO added that it was important to create a “strong brand identity” for Specs, as he said the hardware could appeal to “a different segment of the audience” than “Snapchat’s audience.”

That said, it looks like the process behind Specs may not be resolved yet. Later in the interview, Spiegel continued: “We’re about to launch so the key here is to be right, you know, to nail the setup and make sure we deliver something amazing.” Then, you know, I think we have a lot of flexibility to think about how we want to benefit (on) moving forward.”