Selfie Destruction

In 2016, Snapchat—the American multimedia instant messaging app and service—rebranded itself Snap Inc. In addition to the name change, Snap announced its aspiration to become a camera maker.

In short-order, the company introduced its Spectacles smart glasses. The product failed. Horribly. Fewer than one-percent of Snapchat users purchased the camera-sunglasses. Today, hundreds of thousands of pairs of Snapchat Spectacles sit rotting in warehouses, contributing to Snap’s enormous costs and losses.

Undeterred, Snap Inc. developed the Pixy, a pocket-sized camera-drone designed to broaden the perspectives from which narcissists can photograph and film themselves and their oh-so-fascinating exploits. On paper, the $230 Pixy’s diminutive 101-gram weight, single 12-megapixel sensor, integrated 16-GB storage capacity—which facilitated the storing one-hundred videos or one-thousand photos—looked promising.

Alas, today’s Generation-Z tech users aren’t much for paper. Many of them have never used the stuff, and care little for how good a product may look in the medium. Reviewers lambasted the Pixy, calling it: "… a bit of a brightly colored toy, lacking in the sophistication (and years of development) of a DJI."

In the wake of bad reviews, poor sales, and the weakest quarterly sales growth in company history, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced to employees that the company is reprioritizing its resources, resulting in the shut-down of Pixy.

In July 2022, Snap advised its investors that the economy had worsened more quickly than expected, and warned that the company's revenue growth would be in the lower range of estimates. Snap further announced that while its revenue had grown 13% to $1.1-billion during 2022’s second quarter, the company faced a quarterly net loss of $422-million—more than double the $152-million loss it weathered in the second quarter of 2021. Citing "uncertainties related to the operating environment," Snap refused to provide investors guidance for Q3 and instead highlighted the 18% year-over-year growth of the number of consumers using its products daily.

Snap's stock has dropped 65% since the beginning of 2022, and the company has admitted to miscalculating its first-quarter sales and profit estimates.

Snap management promised to "reaccelerate growth" by finding new revenue sources. In June, the company announced a subscription service called Snapchat+ which it expects to bolster earnings. Snap also plans to introduce a web-based version of SnapChat, which company brass hopes will compel consumers to download the app to their smartphones.

FMI:www.snapchat.com