On the morning of September 8, Beijing time, Sina Science and Technology News reported that after the stock price plummet and cruel layoffs, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wrote to all employees this week that the company plans to continue to expand its revenue and user base next year.
In an email sent to employees on September 6, Spieger said that, The company's goal is to increase the number of Snapchat users by 30% to 450 million by next year, and drive the revenue to 6 billion dollars by 2023. According to the plan, the revenue of 350 million dollars will come from Snapchat paid services recently launched, which can unlock the additional functions of Snapchat. It is estimated that Snapchat will have 4 million paying users by the end of this year.
Spieger wrote: "Previously, we saw the coming challenges and made adjustments accordingly. However, in the face of the new economic reality in 2022, we still suffered a heavy blow. We did not expect the soaring energy and food prices, the high inflation rate, and the federal funds rate to rise 45 times since last September. We must have entered a new era, and we must adapt and overcome it in order to succeed in this new reality. "
He also said that in order to achieve the goal of increasing the number of users, Snap will focus on "increasing the penetration rate in at least one new big country or population group", and attract more users aged 30 to 40 to join Snap. In addition, promoting more users to use Snapchat's "map" and "Spotlight" functions "helps make our services more attractive to the community, more difficult to replicate, more flexible in the face of competition, and will increase our profit opportunities in the long run".
Snap spokesperson has confirmed the authenticity of this internal email.
Snap recently laid off 20% of its staff and cut some teams and projects as a whole, such as the recently launched camera drone. Nevertheless, Spieger said that Snap would still be committed to developing augmented reality technology. He believes that augmented reality "represents the next important development of the computer industry", and the next generation Spectacles AR head display of Snap is under development.
Spieger said: "It is important to maintain a leading position in the field of augmented reality, which will help us build a lasting competitive advantage. Such advantages come from long-term investment, overcoming technical difficulties, and developing a platform that is increasingly difficult to replicate. This also enables us to benefit from the next major platform transformation, which is the transformation from mobile phones to wearable computing devices. Leading this transformation will be one of our most meaningful contributions to human progress, helping people express themselves, live in the present, understand the world, and enjoy together. "
Spieger also mentioned some other important information in this email:
-Snap hopes that by 2023, the average time users spend on content will increase by 10%.
-By 2023, 35% of users will interact with Snapchat's "Map" function every day, and 30% will use the "Spotlight" function every day. "Spotlight" is a TikTok competitor service developed by Snapchat.
-Snap plans to achieve revenue of $6 billion and free cash flow of at least $1 billion in 2023.
-Snap hopes that AR based advertising will account for 10% of total advertising revenue next year.
-Snap hopes that the number of users using its augmented reality effects (i.e. "filters") in other applications will increase to 1 billion per month next year.
-Snap is forming an augmented reality enterprise services division to sell its technology to other companies.
-Spieger said, "We will help developers explore the possibility of the next generation of Spectacles under the condition of confidentiality", which indicates that the next generation of head displays will not be commercially sold.
