Snap: Israel-Hamas war plunges ad spend into doubt
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a halt in “a large number” of Snap’s advertising campaigns, the company said in its quarterly update after hours on Tuesday.
“We observed pauses in spending from a large number of primarily brand-oriented advertising campaigns immediately following the onset of the war in the Middle East, and this has been a headwind to revenue quarter-to-date,” the company behind popular social media app Snapchat said.
Snap added that although some of the campaigns have resumed and revenue is recovering, it is keeping a close eye on any new pauses in ad spend and whether they continue or increase.
“Forward visibility of advertising demand remains limited,” the company said.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking civilian hostages and prompting the latter to invade the Gaza strip, now in the grips of a humanitarian crisis.
In its third-quarter earnings update, Snap posted a 45 per cent drop in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to $40,100 (£33,000) down from $72,600 (£59,800) in the same period last year.
Shares in the disappearing photo app nudged up 2.3 per cent on Wednesday in premarket trading after it said it added 43m daily active users.
Revenue rose five per cent year on year to $1.2m (£989,000).