Snapchat Posts 2.14X Rise In Profit From India Ops In FY22

Snap Camera India Private Limited, the India arm of Snap Inc which operates the social media platform Snapchat, saw its profit after tax (PAT) rise 2.14X year-on-year (YoY) to reach INR 6.22 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), according to data provided by business intelligence platform Tofler.

Snapchat posted a profit of INR 2.91 Cr in FY21.

Snapchat saw its revenue in India reach INR 65.87 Cr, up 2X from the INR 32.7 Cr it posted in FY21. Around 99.85% of the total revenue in India was from Snap’s operations in the country, according to Tofler data.

At the same time, the company’s expenses in India nearly doubled year-on-year, going from INR 28.75 Cr in FY21 to INR 57.42 Cr in FY22.

Snapchat, which has around 150 Mn users in India, derives most of its revenue from the ‘supply of services’, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). This could be put down to the revenue it collected from advertising. Snapchat also launched a premium subscription service in India in August 2022, called Snapchat+.

Snapchat+ was launched for INR 49 per month and could be the reason for a rapid rise in the company’s profits in India. However, Snap Camera India did not disclose the exact share of the subscription service in the overall revenue.

The social media platform also saw its employee benefits expense go from INR 19.58 Cr in FY21 to INR 34.28 Cr in FY22, a rise of 1.75X YoY.

Snap cofounder Evan Spiegel called India a big success story for the social media platform in April 2022, during the Q1 2022 earnings call. 

“Certainly, India has been a great success story for us. But that’s been a big focus of ours, and we have now really organised our teams in our processes around scaling that growth around the world,” Spiegel had said.

As one of its biggest markets, Snapchat has launched several product features and initiatives in India over the past few months. In November 2022, the social media platform launched Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund, a new grant program designed to support emerging and independent artists in India.

Snap would provide monthly grants of up to $50,000 to independent artists in India who are distributing music on Snapchat via DistroKid, an independent music distribution firm through which artists can distribute their licenced music to the streaming platform.

The social media platform also launched parental control tools in India last year, after debuting the feature in the US.

On the video content front, Snapchat competes with the likes of YouTube, Instagram, ShareChat, Moj and others in India. On the other hand, it competes with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and ShareChat for digital advertising.