Snapchat is likely to brush off its recent travails with a storming UK ad revenue performance for 2018, according to the inaugural forecast for the platform by eMarketer, which calculates that the key metric will break through the £100m barrier for the first time. If this prediction comes to fruition Snapchat will take home nigh on £105m in revenues from Britain alone this year, close to double the equivalent figure from 2017. Snapchat has successfully diversified from its home US market in recent years, particularly in the UK which could account for 10% of Snap’s global revenues this year. By way of comparison the messaging app was dependent on 95.9% of its global ad revenues from the US, a proportion that will fall to just 75.8% in 2018. Bill Fisher, eMarketer’s UK senior analyst, commented: “Snapchat continues to pull in users and, by extension, ad revenues. An almost doubling of revenues in 2018 is a great result. But while the user base continues to be dominated by younger age groups, that revenue potential will remain somewhat restricted. And with the financial muscle of Facebook behind close-competitor Instagram, Snap’s going to have to work ever harder for those ad dollars.” Despite making headway in terms of users and ad revenues Snapchat still accounts for less than 1% of UK digital ad spend and is completely eclipsed by Facebook which will grab over a fifth of the market, with Instagram alone accounting for a 5% slice. Last week Snapchat found itself on the receiving end of a public admonishment by Rhianna over an ad promoting domestic violence.
Snapchat is forecast to exceed £100m (£100m) annual revenues in the UK for 2018, according to a forecast by eMarketer. If achieved, it would be nearly double the company's 2017 performance and 10% of global revenues. However, Bill Fisher, UK senior analyst at eMarketer, noted that Snapchat's young user base means revenue potential will remain restricted. Snapchat still accounts for less than 1% of UK digital ad spend compared with Facebook's 20% plus and Instagram's 5%.