Snapchat CEO lays out 2019 plans in leaked memo

MANILA, Philippines – In an internal memo obtained by Cheddar in late September, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said 2018 had been a “challenging, transformative year” for Snapchat.

“In our excitement to innovate and bring many new products into the world, we have lost the core of what made Snapchat the fastest way to communicate,” Spiegel wrote.

Spiegel, however, is not giving up on the social media company he co-founded just yet.

He admitted that the controversial redesign of the app, internally referred to as “Cheetah,” was the cause of frustration for many users and led to the platform’s daily active user decline.

“We rushed our redesign, solving one problem but creating many others,” the Snap CEO said.

Spiegel also said that they were not able to give themselves enough time to test the redesign with the community.

The year is not yet over and Snapchat looks to reach a “stretch goal” of breaking even this fourth quarter and “achieve a full year of profitability” next year.

To do this, Spiegel wants to shift focus back in making Snapchat “the fastest way to communicate” by improving communications and changing the design language of the platform.

Spiegel also outlined plans to grow its daily active users by expanding to new markets with large “youthful populations” like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Aside from revenue growth, the increase in users that comes with Snap’s expansion will in effect keep advertisers and investors interested in the platform.

On top of this, Spiegel said that the company is working on new designs for the Discover tab in the app and will broaden the content found there based on what is performing “outside of Snapchat.”

Snap’s CEO also shared a bit about the company’s plans for augmented reality. “We’re currently building software that takes the millions of Snaps submitted to Our Story and reconstructs parts of the world in 3D. We can then build augmented reality experiences on top of those models and distribute them as Lenses,” Spiegel wrote.

Lastly, Spiegel said the company is working on new ways to help people find friends they care about or will engage with.

Snapchat hopes that with these changes it can win some of its users back as it continues to battle stiff competition with the likes of Instagram and Facebook. – Rappler.com