Reports: Snap

More than ever, social platforms are the de facto way that consumers interact not only with entertainment but with the internet itself. As internet access expands in emerging markets and social platforms continue to eat up digital entertainment consumption in developed ones, further growth is inevitable because the market has: The ability to grow user numbers The ability to grow time spent by those users The ability to make more money from that time spent, both from ads and increasingly from new subscription offerings Social as it was in the 2000s and 2010s has matured.

Following a spectacular year of growth in 2021, global recorded music revenue growth slowed significantly in 2022, due to the combined impact of global economic headwinds and growth slowdown in mature streaming markets. Context, though, is everything – not many industries can deliver solid growth while the global economy is in turmoil, ad markets are falling, and many emerging tech sectors are in crisis.

The world is facing a period of change and disruption that is unprecedented in modern times. With so many interconnected dynamics across consumer spending, economic cycles, the climate, and even geo-politics, consumer behaviours and spending will undoubtedly be impacted.

The combined effects of market saturation for subscription video on demand (SVOD) alongside a growing cost-of-living crisis are forcing pureplay SVOD services to modify their ad-free propositions. Disney-owned Hulu has demonstrated the viability of an ad-supported SVOD basic plan, which now offers a blueprint for Disney+ and Netflix.

Weekly active user (WAU) penetration for the top streaming services is now slowing with quarter-on-quarter growth effectively flat for the leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Peak attention is now clearly here for video. The looming attention recession, which is already impacting the wider digital entertainment landscape, will exacerbate the greater underlying disengagement trends such as cancelling subscriptions that are starting to impact on video.

The global pandemic created a temporary boost to the attention economy, with all forms of entertainment benefiting. As life began to return to normal, this newfound time quickly started to erode, causing growing pains for many entertainment companies.

In this report MIDiA presents, contrasts and analyses headline financial metrics of 12 leading music industry companies across labels, publishers, streaming and live. The companies tracked represent more than half of total global music industry revenues across these sectors.

Snap Inc’s Q4 results bookend the company’s dramatic first year of being a publicly listed company. 2017 was the year Snap has had to effectively admit that its rebranding as “a camera company” has, for the moment, failed to deliver—recall Q3’s $40 million write down of unsold Snap Spectacle inventory.