Snapchat parent Snap said daily active users jumped 22% or 51 million last quarter year on year to 280 million.
The company said sales rose 66% to nearly $770 million and net losses narrowed to $286 million from $305 million.
“We began 2021 by achieving our highest year-over-year revenue and daily active user growth rates in over three years during the quarter, and delivering positive free cash flow for the first time in Snap’s history as a public company,” said CEO Evan Spiegel. “The strength of our business underscores our relentless focus on product innovation and is a testament to our team’s ability to execute well together over the long term.”
The stock, which closed lower in a down day for the market, was up more than 2% in late trading on the numbers.
Daily active user (or DAUs) last quarter increased sequentially and year-over-year in each of North America, Europe, and rest of world on both iOS and Android platforms. For the first time, it said, the majority of DAUs for the quarter were on the Android version of its application.
Snap said over 20 million viewers have watched Ryan Doesn’t Know, a new Snap Original starring Ryan Reynolds. it invested in content offerings and launched new channels and its first local market Snap Original, Phone Swap, in India. Over 125 million users checked out Spotlight, its new platform surfacing the most entertaining Snaps from our community.
AR is a major push and the company outlined investments and innovation in its camera and augmented reality platforms, as well as enhanced capabilities for advertisers.
It said the number of “Snapchatters” engaging daily with our augmented reality Lenses platform grew more than 40% year-over-year. Over 260 million users engaged with Valentine’s Day Lenses over a two-week period. Lunar New Year Lenses reached over 125 million users.
It released Lens Studio 3.4 with improved capabilities around hand tracking, 3D multi-body tracking, and full body segmentation and a new asset library of 3D models, materials, scripts, and presets to help creators build Lenses.
Looking ahead, the company said said there was significant uncertainty in guidance but anticipated revenue in the current second quarter of between $820 million and $840 million, compared to $454 last year. It forecast adjusted EBITDA of between negative $20 million and breakeven, compared to negative $96 million.
Spiegel will host a call at 5 pm ET to discuss the quarter.