Thomas Trutschel/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Snap, the company best known for its Snapchat app, reported a $2.2 billion loss in its first quarter as a publicly traded company.
Shares dropped 22 percent, which marked its lowest point since its public offering in March.
The company said Snapchat added 8 million active users during the quarter, upping its base to 166 million. But many analysts and investors expected more impressive numbers from the highest-profile IPO in years, even though other social networking sites, such as Twitter, showed stalled growth after going public.
Facebook also had a rough start after its first earnings report, but has since become a powerhouse. The slowdown of Snap’s growth has coincided with the launch of Facebook-owned Instagram’s “Stories” feature, which allows users to post photos and videos that disappear within 24 hours. This concept was popularized by Snapchat.
But Snapchat is trying to stay ahead of the curve. The company recently introduced a new feature, New World Lenses, that lets users add 3-D augmented-reality objects, often referred to as “stickers,” to their Snapchat posts.
