Sometimes, it helps to see the bigger picture.

Shares of Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat, are up more than 30% in the last last week after posting better-than-expected results for the most recent quarter — in no small part due to impressive growth outside of North America. Revenue jumped some 21% on the year prior, but Snap also posted a 39M annual increase in global daily active users, over 90% of which came from outside of the US and Canada.

Snap’s position in the competitive social media arena has always been somewhat precarious — epitomized by one infamous tweet wiping $1B+ off its value. Lacking the sheer scale of Meta or the virality offered by the endless scrolling TikTok feed, Snap has struggled to become a profit machine, losing money nearly every quarter since going public.

A typical North American user was worth $7.44 to Snap in its most recent quarter, way more than the $1.13 that it raked in from its “Rest of World” Snappers, but nowhere near the ~$68 per user average that Facebook made from its US & Canadian active users in the final quarter of 2023. However, Snap has been improving its advertising targeting capabilities, with the number of small and medium advertisers on the app rising 85% in the last year.

Filtering through

Although its appeal may have peaked in the US — where users haven’t really grown for years — Snap has found success overseas. Early last year, the app reached 200M monthly active users in India, home to an estimated 20% global share of Gen Z, Snapchat’s primary user base. And, with TikTok caught in Congress’s crosshairs, Snap could find itself perfectly placed to win a larger share of eyeballs in its most lucrative market.