Snapchat’s 238 million users opened the app an average of 30 times a day during the global lockdown and increased their watch time of Shows by 45% year-on-year.
These were just two of the highlights from Snap’s Q2 financial results, which have bolstered Silicon Valley and Wall Street optimism in a now faster than expected recovery for digital advertising revenues.
Snap, the first major social-media-related company to report in the June quarter, also said it generated $454.2 million in revenue, a 17% year-on-year increase, beating analysts’ average estimated revenue of $441.6 million.
Snapchat’s daily active users grew by 17% year-on-year (up by 35 million) in the three months ending 30 June 2020. The daily average number of Snapchatters over the age of 35 engaging with Discover content meanwhile increased by over 40%. While on average, over 180 million Snapchatters engaged with augmented reality daily.
During the period, Snap launched Happening Now, a dedicated feed on Discover providing real-time, curated news from partners such as The Washington Post, ESPN, and BuzzFeed. It also announced expanded multi-year content partnerships with Disney, ESPN, NBC, ViacomCBS, the NBA, and the NFL.
“We continued to grow our community and business in a challenging and uncertain environment,” said Evan Spiegel, Snap CEO. “I am proud of our team for innovating on new experiences for our community and driving value for our partners, demonstrating the importance of our service in people’s lives. We are grateful that the resilience of our business has allowed us to remain focused on our future growth and opportunity.”
For the remainder of the year, Snap is expected to benefit from a return of digital advertisers in Q3, along with the Facebook boycott of more than 1,000 advertisers for offensive content on its platforms.
