Snap shares soared after CEO Evan Spiegel touted the company's highest Q3 growth rate since 2017. The outspoken executive used Tuesday's earnings call to highlight the social media platform's efforts to engage users "following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor."
The upbeat earnings report sent its stock soaring 20% in after-hours trading.
<p>The Santa Monica-based social media and camera company beat earnings expectations with revenue up 52% year over year in Q3 to $679 million. The company, which is still not profitable, trimmed losses this quarter to $200 million from $227 million the previous year.</p><p>With more people stuck at home during the pandemic, Snap saw daily active users grow 18% year-over-year to 249 million. The average number of Snaps created daily grew 25% in that time.</p><p>"Over the past year, as the changing public health landscape accelerates the adoption of digital products, we believe there is a large opportunity for us to further empower new behaviors, with AR, entertainment and commerce," Spiegel said.</p><p>Spiegel has not been afraid to wade into discussions around systemic racism, calling for tax reform and reparations over the summer in <a href="https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/we-stand-together" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a lengthy memo to employees</a>. On Tuesday, he said that the company responded to the summer protests over the deaths of Floyd, Arbery and Taylor, by publishing curated community stories "featuring powerful Snaps from our community, which ranged from breaking news about peaceful protests, to a dialogue about what it means to be living while Black in America." </p><p>He added the company is also providing a dedicated breaking news section for media partners like NBC News and ESPN.<br/></p><p>Snap's chief financial officer, Derek Andersen, tempered expectations leading into Q4. While Q4 advertising demand has historically been bolstered by the holiday season, it's unclear if that will materialize this year, Andersen cautioned in prepared remarks. He said the company is also expecting year-over-year expense growth to be likely higher in Q4 than to date due to efforts to "double down" on existing momentum.</p><p>Snap had seen its stock rise significantly over the summer as the Trump administration zeroed in on competitor TikTok and threatened a ban on the China-owned viral-video company over national security concerns. Snap also launched its own TikTok rival, "<a href="https://press.snap.com/Sounds-on-Snapchat" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sounds on Snapchat</a>," earlier this month, which lets users add music to their Snaps. </p><p>Snap also may have benefited from a boycott by major advertisers, which reduced ad spending by millions over the summer.</p><p>Spiegel acknowledged during Tuesday's earnings call that "the growing focus on brand safety and privacy, across the entire industry, places us in a unique position of strength, as we have invested in these areas from the beginning of our business."</p><p>"Snap's Q3 earnings results yet again confirm that 2020 is a good year for the platform," said digital marketing company <a href="http://www.socialbakers.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Socialbakers</a>' CEO Yuval Ben-Itzhak, who added that Snap's earnings reflect the fact that worldwide social media ad spend increased in Q3 by 56.4%. </p><p>Ben-Itzhak noted that mobile is also emerging as the first screen for users and user-generated content, which has fueled Snapchat's growth from the get go. New features like City Painter and Sounds, have shown its ability to innovate to be "a clear challenger to TikTok and Instagram Reels."</p><p>The company has added more than 180 new Discover channels in Q3, including those by Disney, ESPN, NBC, Viacom, CBS, the NBA and the NFL. It also grabbed onto 90s nostalgia among the over-30s crowd, holding a "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" cast reunion that was watched by more than 35 million.</p><p>"With people spending more time online as a result of the pandemic, Snapchat's premium content has proven to be a favorite with users and marketers alike," Ben-Itzhak said.</p><p>But marketing analytics firm eMarketer Principal Analyst Debra Aho Williamson said nearly all of Snap's gains come from outside of North America and Europe, and noted its otherwise "lackluster growth" is "not completely surprising" as the increase in users from an early "pandemic bump" abated and growth of new social media users have slowed. </p><p>Williamson attributed Snap's "outperformance" to its "rising stature as a direct-response advertising platform" as well as its unique offerings in AR and video advertising. The company has also benefited from an overall increase in ecommerce-related ad spending in digital media during the pandemic, Williamson said.</p><p>Spiegel said the adoption of augmented reality, which the company has heavily invested in, is happening "faster than we had previously anticipated."</p><p>The company said users created more than 1.5 million "Lenses" in Q3 as part of the platform's "Lens Studio," which allows users to create and share augmented reality lenses. Spiegel said Snapchatters play with Lenses six-times as often as they did last year.</p><p>Snap's AR overlays and machine learning capacity has, he said, let luxury brand Gucci leverage its tracking technology to "help people try on their latest sneakers and Snapchat and even buy them directly within the Lens." Spiegel noted that gaming and ecommerce companies in particular have "leaned in" as advertisers on the platform.</p><p>Snapchat is becoming increasingly popular among key-audience, Gen Z. <a href="http://www.pipersandler.com/3col.aspx?id=6039" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Piper Sandler's fall 2020 survey</a> ranked Snapchat as Gen Z's favorite social media platform while Instagram fell from No. 2 to No. 3 and TikTok moved up to No. 2. More than half of the U.S. Gen Z's population watched COVID-related news created by Snap's partners, Spiegel said.</p><p>___</p><p><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Twitter @latams</em></a><em>. You can also email me, or ask for my Signal.</em></p>
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L.A.-based short-form social-video app Triller continues to jockey for position with rival TikTok.
On Friday the company launched a live-streaming feature that will allow users to post content in real time, similar to Instagram Live and TikTok's Go Live.
<p>Creators can earn money through the new feature via paywalled access and fan donations. Seventy percent of Triller's live-stream income will go directly to the artist, the company said, claiming that creators are worse off on other platforms because those platforms tend to take a larger cut of the proceeds. </p><p>TikTok did not respond to dot.LA's request for comment.</p><p>Triller also announced that the first ten influencers who hit 100,000 concurrent viewers will receive $50,000 from the company. </p><p>In a statement, Triller said the new live-streaming feature is the "final integration of Halogen Networks," a Florida-based live-streaming platform Triller <a href="https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2020/jul/15/video-sharing-app-triller-acquires-halogen-network/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">acquired in June</a>. </p><p>The new feature launches amid a newsworthy week for Triller. </p><p>Earlier this week, the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/style/triller-app-tiktok.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">detailed the app's attempts</a> to woo creators to its platform. These efforts include offering TikTok queen Charli D'Amelio a rented Rolls Royce and providing luxury living quarters to other influencers. </p><p>The Times piece also reported that Triller plans to roll out "a new algorithmically curated feed" next week, similar to TikTok's "For You" feature, the underlying technology of which has been central to the protracted negotiations regarding TIkTok's future. </p><p>On Monday, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/triller-responds-metrics-224000624.html?guccounter=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Triller denied</a> allegations originally <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/some-former-triller-employees-wary-of-monthly-active-user-count-2020-9?op=1&scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4&r=US&IR=T" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported by a Business Insider piece</a> that it had exaggerated its user numbers in October 2019, when the company came under the ownership of Proxima Media and its outspoken leader, Ryan Kavanaugh. </p><p>This followed <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/20/triller-threatened-to-sue-over-report-suggesting-it-inflated-its-downloads/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a spat in August</a> with third-party analytics firm Apptopia, which claimed Triller had inflated its 2020 numbers. Triller <a href="https://dot.la/xset-gaming-2647054457/triller-threatens-legal-action-over-metrics-estimates" target="_self">threatened to sue</a> Apptopia, which has since begun working with Triller to sync up on data methodology in order to provide more accurate figures. A representative from Apptopia told dot.LA that a report detailing Triller's numbers could come out "at some point in time this calendar year." </p><p>Although these data discrepancies remain unresolved, in part because Triller is a private company and need not publicly disclose how it counts its users, they inevitably cast doubt among some industry observers on Triller's claims. Kavanaugh told the Times, for instance, that if a creator is going to make $300,000 with TikTok, they would "probably make $2 million with us", but provided no details – prompting music media firm Music Ally to write that "one can only imagine the raised eyebrows within TikTok." </p><p>Triller also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ice-and-triller-agree-to-a-multi-territory-licensing-deal-301144963.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">struck a licensing deal</a> last week with European publishing group ICE, which represents over 330,000 rights holders. The move is part of a broad trend of social video companies solidifying their copyright infrastructure <a href="https://dot.la/article-17-2647841718.html" target="_self">as digital music legal reforms loom</a>. </p>
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It's 2020 and waiting for photos to develop is cool again.
That's at least what investors in a $4 million seed round for the "disposable camera" app Dispo hope. The Los Angeles-based platform co-founded by hit YouTuber David Dobrik announced Wednesday it closed a funding round led by Alexis Ohanian's venture fund Seven Seven Six.
The app, previously known as David's Disposables, has seen 2.6 million downloads since launching on Christmas Day last year. It's a camera app that makes users wait a day for their photos to "develop," recreating the anticipation of waiting to pick up a roll of film.
<p>"You can remember a time when you'd get disposable photos back from the pharmacy and there was this Christmas morning feeling where you were rifling through the photos and finding that one perfect shot," co-founder and CEO Daniel Liss told dot.LA.</p><p>Most Dispo users are teenagers and college students, a generation that doesn't know life without cell phones and digital cameras. Liss said they've taken to the company's concept partly because they're fans of Dobrik, 24, who has a fanbase among Generation Z. The media celebrity has over seven million followers across social media platforms. </p><p>Last week, Dobrik <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/10/07/david-dobriks-tesla-giveaway-was-probably-one-of-the-largest-us-voter-registration-drives-ever/#2a190d317b47" target="_blank">gave away five Teslas</a> through an event with the voter-registration nonprofit HeadCount. Liss said that event alone brought in 10% of all Headcount's voter registrations since it was launched.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ3NDIxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODMyMTM0M30.TJ2RJYUrm-rxrbLCjVI173AwQZUXOi2h_Ssvm9ZAV68/image.jpg?width=980" id="d30c2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d7d43d97ff53925e615a47feb23d7fa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Dispo team members. Top left to right: David Dobrik, Daniel Liss, Natalie MariduenaBottom l to r: Regynald Augustin, Alexis Ohanian, Briana Hokanson</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Credit: Jack Dytrych / Briana Hokanson</small></p><p>The app ushers in a new — but actually old — way of taking photos.<br/></p><p>"A lot of his friends, who have big followings, would be so focused on taking the perfect photo," Liss said about Dobrik. "They wanted their lips to look a certain way and their butt to look a different way and the lighting and the outfits and this and that." </p><p>So the influencer started arriving at parties in L.A. with disposable cameras instead. No immediate shots to nitpick over. The idea stuck. </p><p>"They felt better about the experience. They felt so much more joy." </p><p>With the new funding, Liss said the six-person Dispo team is working to expand into a social media platform with features like user profiles, direct messages and comments. </p><p>It's too early to think about competitors, said Liss, but he imagines the platform will rival any app that captures the time of young people: social media, YouTube, Netflix — even hanging out in real life.</p>
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