Snapchat loses $10 bn as stock hits new 52-week low

San Francisco, July 23

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, suffered nearly $10 billion loss after its shares hit a new 52-week low over disappointing quarterly results (Q2) amid poor future forecast.

The company's stock lost nearly 40 per cent of their value on Friday, after it reported a net loss of $422 million compared to $152 million in the prior year as the company "substantially" reduced hiring.

"We face a number of very large and very sophisticated competitors (and) we're seeing the overall advertising pie grow at a slower rate amid the macro headwinds," CFO Derek Anderson told investors.

"As competition, whether it's with TikTok or any of the other very large, sophisticated players in this space, has only intensified and it's hard to disentangle the numerous factors here impacting what's clearly a headwind driving deceleration in our business," he added.

In May, Snap announced to slow down hiring this year. Spiegel told employees that the company plans to hire 500 people this year, versus 2,000 it hired over the past 12 months, after warning investors that its revenue wouldn't grow as fast as expected.

Like many tech companies, Snap continues to face rising inflation and interest rates, supply chain shortages and labour disruptions, platform policy changes, the impact of the war in Ukraine, and more.