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TECHNOLOGY Saturday 12 auguSt 2017
Snapchat’s not-growing pains are a boom for Instagram

By BARBARA ORTUTAY sustainable over the long-
AP Technology Writer term.”Facebook sends
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- notifications for all sorts
book once failed to buy of things, such as a friend
Snapchat; ever since, it’s doing a live video or an-
tried to copy it, mostly with- other friend posting some-
out success. thing after an extended
Until now. Facebook’s In- absence. Another might
stagram Stories, a clear be on a new item for sale
Snapchat clone, has more in the service’s “market-
daily users than Snapchat place” section.
itself — and parent com- These notifications —
pany Snap Inc. should be which primarily appear
very worried. in the Facebook app but
Snap’s latest earnings re- can also be pushed to
port isn’t helping either. On the phone’s home screen
Thursday, the company — can conceivably keep
said user growth for the people returning day after
April-June period was a day.
paltry 4 percent from the While Snapchat sends few-
previous quarter. er notifications, it encour-
Snap’s stock, already ages daily use through
down 44 percent since Snapstreak , which calls out
its initial public offering in In this Thursday, March 2, 2017, file photo, Snap co-founders Bobby Murphy, left, and CEO Evan streaks in which two friends
May, declined 14 percent, Spiegel ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange as the company celebrates its IPO. send each other snaps at
Associated Press
to $11.90, in extended trad- least once for more than
ing after the results came or improving. The analyst, the last official count. vices. three consecutive days.
out. That’s less than half of Brian Nowak, said the com- Snap said Thursday that it Snap CEO Evan Spiegel But it isn’t working too well,
the $24.48 closing price on pany needs to do more so lost $443 million, or 36 cents has long defended the as daily use hasn’t grown
its first trading day. that advertisers don’t see it per share, in the second company’s decision not to much.
While the doom doesn’t as a mere experiment, but quarter. That compares make user growth its prima- RIVALS UPON RIVALS
spell imminent death, it’s a a serious player. with a loss of $116 million, or ry mission. He doesn’t even Rivals don’t always suc-
sign that Snapchat could BY THE NUMBERS 14 cents per share, a year like calling Snapchat a so- ceed. Facebook recently
be relegated to the side- Instagram recently dis- earlier. cial network; he insists it’s a shut down Lifestage, which
lines as a niche app for closed that Stories, which Revenue grew to $182 mil- camera company. lets those 21 and under
young people — or worse, lets people share videos lion, more than double the “There’s a lot of this thing in share photos, selfies and
a passing fad — rather and snapshots in a con- $72 million a year earlier our industry called growth videos with classmates.
than a major competitor tinuous 24-hour loop, has but below analysts’ expec- hacking, where you send a Lifestage was aimed at
for digital ad dollars like amassed 250 million daily tations. lot of push notifications to high schoolers — a big
Facebook and yes, even users in the year since it TO GROW OR NOT TO users or you try to get them chunk of Snapchat’s audi-
the struggling Twitter. launched. GROW to do things that might be ence.
An analyst for Morgan Stan- Snapchat, in comparison, “Facebook has proven unnatural or something like Before that, Facebook
ley, the lead underwriter had 173 million in the sec- themselves to be a fierce that,” Spiegel told investors killed Slingshot, another
for Snap’s IPO, recently cut ond quarter — and that’s competitor ,” Gartner ana- in May. Snapchat clone for send-
his rating of the company’s all of Snapchat, not just its lyst Brian Blau said. Face- Although that’s an easy ing disappearing messag-
stock, citing competition version of Stories. Instagram book, he added, under- way to grow daily users es. In turn, that followed
from Instagram and wor- in its entirety, meanwhile, stands how to get more quickly, Spiegel said, Snap the demise of Poke, which
ries that Snap’s advertising had more than 400 million and more people to sign doesn’t believe “those also let people send pho-
offerings aren’t evolving daily users as of February, up and keep using its ser- sorts of techniques are very tos and videos. q

Consumers Reports pulls

Microsoft laptop recommendation

By the Associated Press because of poor reliability losing their “recommend-
Consumer Reports is pull- compared to other brands. ed” status are the Surface
ing its recommendation of Microsoft said the findings Laptop (128GB and 256GB
four Microsoft laptops af- don’t accurately reflect versions) and Surface Book
ter one of its surveys found Surface owners’ “true ex- (128GB and 512GB ver-
that users were complain- periences.” The consumer sions). Consumer Reports
ing about problems with group says Microsoft ma- last pulled laptop recom-
the devices. The consum- chines have performed mendations in 2015, when
er advocacy group said well in laboratory testing. ratings were removed for
Thursday that it can no But a subscriber survey two Hewlett-Packard lap-
longer recommend Mi- found start-up and freez- tops and one made by This April 12, 2016, file photo shows the Microsoft logo in Issy-les-
crosoft laptops or tablets ing problems. The devices Lenovo. q Moulineaux, outside Paris, France.
Associated Press