During Snap’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Evan Spiegel said that the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future has positively affected its business.
“We’re not trying to draw too many conclusions from some of the engagement lift we saw when [TikTok] went dark for that brief period of time. I would say that the overall environment of uncertainty is benefiting our business,” he said on the call.
Among the appealing features that attract users to Snapchat is Spotlight, which serves as the company’s alternative to TikTok. Many creators are already on the platform, and more will likely join if TikTok goes offline in the U.S. again. Over the past year, Snap has onboarded thousands of creators into its Snap Star program, and the number of creators posting content grew by more than 40% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, says the company.
Spiegel also highlighted the growth of Snapchat’s public content. He added, “I think in Q4 we actually reached a billion public posts a month on Snapchat. So the public content ecosystem is growing in a really nice and healthy way, and so we’re just going to continue our focus there when it comes to our strategy and participation.”
In the fourth quarter, the company reported that it reached 453 million daily active users, an increase of 39 million from the previous period. Snap reported a revenue of $1.55 billion, up from $1.36 billion the previous year.
The uncertainty surrounding TikTok has not only benefited Snap but has also affected the broader social media landscape, with several apps, including the Chinese-owned RedNote, YouTube, and Meta, seeing boosts in user engagement.
