It's that time of the year again when companies share their fourth-quarter results and Snap reports solid growth in North America.
Just recently, Facebook reported its results for the quarter and took a jab at Snap by highlighting that its services are more popular than Snapchat, with more users. North America, however, is a crucial market for both Facebook and Snap, and the latter saw faster growth.
Snap Growing Faster Than Facebook In North America
On Tuesday, Feb. 6, Snap reported that during the fourth quarter of 2017, it reached 80 million daily average users in North America, marking a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter.
By comparison, Facebook announced last week that it saw a slight decrease in DAUs in the United States and Canada, dropping to 180 million and marking the company's first decline of this kind.
Looking at the companies' year-on-year performance, Snap saw a notably faster growth in North America, with a 17.7 percent increase in DAUs. On this basis, Facebook saw a significantly slower growth of just 2.2 percent.
Snap Grows Despite Facebook Competition
Facebook and Snap have been fiercely competing against each other, offering similar features and services, and accounting for some of the most popular apps on the market. Facebook even copied several Snapchat features such as Stories and others, which may have affected Snap's growth in 2017, but Snap nonetheless managed to end the year with solid results.
Overall, Snap has far fewer users than Facebook, but its growth is faster and more constant especially in North America.
Snap has been constantly tweaking its service, redesigning and adding new features, aiming to improve the overall experience for existing users and make it more appealing to new customers. The latest changes include a "do not disturb" feature.
Snap Redesign Pays Out
The company is also testing new approaches and analyzing trends so it can offer what consumers want. For instance, Snap revealed that in a test market the number of DAUs using the Discover feed to watch Publisher Stories saw a 40 percent growth with the new design compared to the app's old design.
In terms of financial results, Snap reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue. In North America, the company's average revenue per user climbed to $2.75 during the fourth quarter, compared to $2.15 during the same period the prior year. Globally, its average revenue per user jumped from $1.05 to $1.53.
At the same time, the company had expected higher losses that it actually incurred, so overall, it ended the year on a positive note. After the encouraging financial report for the fourth quarter of 2017, Snap's shares surged in after-hours trading.
