Share value in SNAP Inc. dropped by 21 percent, to end trading on May 3 at a record new low for the technology company.

Snap Inc. - the company behind Snapchat, which floated on the stock market in March 2017 - have watched their value steadily drop over the last year. Analysts are now blaming this latest slump in share prices on Snapchat’s re-design, which has seen a backlash from users online.

Snap Inc.’s market performance has disappointed

A little over a year ago, Snap Inc.’s Initial Public Offering ranked it as one of the largest companies in the world, and investors rushed to get a piece of the action.

The IPO price of Snap Inc. was $17 per share, but this has followed a downward trend ever since.

Although February saw Snap Inc.’s market value at a yearly high of $20.75 per share, it has fallen to $11.03 at close of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on May 3. This is approaching its all-time low of $10.96.

Why is it doing so badly?

Snap Inc.’s share price has performed poorly after the company reported their first-quarter sales and number of daily active users. When investors realized that both of these figures missed 2018 estimates, at least three analysts cut their ratings on the company.

Now Wall Street is laying the blame on Snap’s controversial redesign of their app, which has seen users frustrated with its changed layout.

Stock market analysts believe that managers at the company must act quickly, or Snapchat will lose users to Instagram.

Snap Inc. has seen a lot of negative feedback online over its new design. Users say Snapchat’s ‘Friends’ page condenses incoming Snapchats and Stories together, and doesn’t present them in chronological order.

Can Snap Inc. turn it around?

“Snapchat risks losing its cool status with users,” says Kunal Madhukar of Deutsche Bank. But the analyst also claims that Snapchat has a strong core base of users, who can help to turn things around.

This isn’t the first time that Snap Inc. have encountered losses, however. When the company reported its earnings for the first time in May 2017, they revealed a $2.2 billion quarterly loss and their stock value plummeted by over 20%.

Meanwhile, Wall Street analyst Sam Kemp of Piper Jaffray claims: “Snap is a poorly structured company that is demonstrating a clear pattern of mismanagement.”

With increased competition from Instagram, will Snapchat turn around their fortunes, or implode? Only time, and perhaps another redesign of the app, will tell.
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