Snapchat could see slow user growth this quarter

New York, June 8 (IANS) As the shares of Snap Inc — the parent company of Snapchat app — dropped nearly four per cent on Wednesday, analysts said the company’s daily active user growth might slow down in the second quarter this year.

Citing app download data from SensorTower, a mobile app store marketing intelligence platform, marketwatch.com website quoted the analysts as saying that worldwide downloads of Snapchat have declined 22 per cent year-over-year in the first two months of the second quarter.

"This is a worrisome trend, especially when compared with Snap competitor Facebook Inc, which saw Instagram downloads increasing year-over-year in that same time," the analysts were quoted as saying.

In Snap’s first quarter, it reported 166 million daily active users, a growth rate of five per cent from the previous quarter. From the third quarter to the fourth quarter, Snap’s daily active users had increased by 3.2 per cent.

Facebook, which has copied features from Snapchat, has Instagram’s Stories feature that has reportedly surpassed its competitor in daily active users.

The declining downloads in the second quarter is felt particularly in Apple App Store, where the analysts say they have dropped 40 per cent in those two months.