Snap recovers from Apple’s ATT

Snap on Thursday said its ad business has bounced back faster than expected from the effects of Apple’s ATT, generating $1.3 billion in revenue in Q4 2021.

Snap revenue increased 42 percent to $1.3 billion in Q4 2021, compared to the prior year. 

Reporting $1.07 billion in revenue at the end of the third quarter, Snapchat had said Apple’s App Store privacy changes had caused the company to fail to meet revenue expectations for its third quarter. A few weeks after the third quarter results were announced, a Snap Inc investor had sued the social media company, alleging that it downplayed how Apple’s ATT threatened its ad revenue.

Snap reported that average revenue per user increased 18% YoY to reach $4.06 in Q4 2021. For the full year 2021, Snap revenue increased 64% to $4.1 billion in 2021, compared to the prior year.

Snap DAUs were 319 million in Q4 2021, an increase of 54 million, or 20%, year-over-year. Year-over-year growth in DAUs has been 20% or more for five consecutive quarters.

The company forecasts first-quarter revenue between $1.03 billion to $1.08 billion, and DAUs to be between 328 million to 330 million. Following the first quarter outlook surpassing analyst estimates, Snap shares skyrocketed 50%. 

“2021 was an exciting year for Snap and we made significant progress growing our business and serving our global community,” said Evan Spiegel, CEO. “The strength of our core business has enabled us to accelerate our investments in augmented reality, transforming the way that the Snapchat community experiences the world through our camera.” 

In January, Snap introduced Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses, which lets brands showcase a range of products in a single Lens and give users more virtual trial options. The company also introduced real-time analytics for brands, as the AR Shopping Lense are linked directly to the company’s product catalog. 

Meta, formerly Facebook, posted its fourth quarter earnings Wednesday. For the fourth quarter of 2021, Meta beat analysts’ expectation in ad revenue at $33.67 billion, but missed the top end of its guidance from the last quarter’s earnings call. 

Meta CFO Dave Wehner said on the earnings call that  Apple’s App Tracking Transparency will decrease the company’s sales in 2022 by about $10 billion.