Snap Inc’s            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                       million write down of unsold Snap Spectacle inventory. This precipitated a realignment back to its messaging app origins, with a user experience redesign. It came after a frank admission by co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel that the app was “difficult to use.” Alongside this revamp has been the increase in programmatic advertising to            of ad inventory, and a welcome return to significant daily active user growth of            year-on-year. However, losses continue to escalate, with net losses up by            quarter-on-quarter which means the stated target of becoming a            billion annual revenue company before the fifth anniversary of its IPO remains an arbitrary measure of success for Snap.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Snap Inc, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter