Snap CEO aims to transform the company, not sell it

Evan Spiegel, the CEO and Co-founder of Snap Inc., said on Wednesday that they have no plans to sell the social media company but are committed to restructuring it, which has had a pretty tough year due to the economic slowdown and Apple’s privacy changes. 

Spiegel attended the second day of Vox Media’s Code Conference as a speaker, where he was asked if they had any plans to sell the company. “So far, Bobby and I believe that the best way to realize our potential is by building an independent company,” he said. 

Snap’s stock price plunged approximately 76% since the beginning of 2022. After sharing its financial results for the second quarter missing analysts’ revenue expectations, sources familiar with the matter said that the company was planning a lay-off. Last week, the company announced it laid off 20% of its staff, and cancelled a number of projects including Snap Originals, Minis, Games, and Pixy. Its Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman also left the company to join Netflix, which is working on its ad-supported subscription plan, as the President of Worldwide Advertising. 

“When I look at the long-term opportunity in our business, I really believe it’s enormous,” said Spiegel during the conference. ‘’I believe we’re far from reaching our full potential. And I believe over time, the stock price has gone up and down, and we’ve tried to stay focused on delivering real value for shareholders.”

He also talked about the company’s goals to advance their direct-response advertising solutions and augmented reality (AR) offerings.  

Last year, Snap released the findings of its study on the use of AR for shopping, and said they’re expecting it to surge over the next five years. It also launched its global creative studio named ‘Arcadia’ in October, to allow brands to create AR advertising experiences.

Spiegel said that the company could transform its AR offerings into an ‘’AR enterprise business’’ one day. 

Snapchat targets 450 million users and $6 billion in revenue by 2023

In an internal memo shared with staff on Tuesday, CEO Spiegel said they aim to reach 450 million users and $6 billion in revenue by the end of 2023, as reported by The Verge. He said that Snapchat’s new paid subscription plan, which recently surpassed 1 million subscribers, is expected to account for $350 million of the revenue target.