Snap CEO Evan Spiegel isn’t ready to sell his company

September 8, 2022:

Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is leading a company with a steeply declining stock price, competition from a much bigger industry rival, and painful staff cuts — but he isn’t ready to give up.

“When I look at the long-term opportunity in our business, I really believe it’s enormous,” said Spiegel, speaking with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway at Vox Media’s Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on Wednesday. “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.”

Snap’s stock price has lost around 76 percent of its value since the beginning of this year. Last week, the company laid off 20 percent of its workforce, or over 1,200 employees — one of the biggest in a recent wave of layoffs in tech. The company also decided to cancel at least six of its products, including its self-flying camera drone, Pixy.

At the same time, Spiegel is going up against some major competition from social media giant Meta, which invested $10 billion last year on AR/VR-related initiatives similar to what Snap has long been working on with its Spectacles video-recording glasses and other hardware projects.

“What gives me a lot of hope is that, you know, historically in our industry, spending huge amounts of money is not always correlated with long-term success,” Spiegel said. He added that even if a company’s competitors “have way more money,” that doesn’t mean they’ll win. “In fact, I think what happens is that many of those companies that are spending a lot more aren’t having to make hard choices.”

Snap is one of several consumer tech companies that has been hit hard by recent inflation and global economic uncertainty, as well as recent changes to Apple’s privacy settings that make it harder for social media companies to advertise to mobile users.

These factors caused hiring freezes and layoffs at some of the most valuable companies in the world, like Google and Facebook. But the impact has been particularly large at Snap, which is a comparatively smaller company with fewer sources of revenue. The company also expanded its staff size last year, hiring over 2,000 people.

Even amid recent financial challenges, Snap has continued to significantly grow its user base and has around 347 million daily users. To continue to do that, though, the 32-year-old CEO will have to fend off this economic downturn and fierce competition.

“I haven’t found a magic solution or answer because I also feel an enormous responsibility,” said Spiegel. “And so I feel pulled in a million directions all the time.”

Source link

tags

Abkhazia Afghanistan Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curacao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Northern Cyprus Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Lucia Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda UK Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uruguay USA Uzbekistan Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe