How Snapchat Has Kept Itself Free of Fake News

To get a sense of how rough things are for Snapchat, consider the Dancing Hot Dog. In June the disappearing-messages app began letting users overlay their videos with a squat-legged cartoon wiener. It quickly became an internet sensation. Not that investors cared.

On parent company Snap Inc.’s quarterly earnings call in August, Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel boasted that the break-dancing tube steak had been seen more than 1.5 billion times on Snapchat, calling it “likely the world’s first augmented-reality superstar.” This goofy glory didn’t do much to soften the bad news: The company had brought in less than $200 million in ad revenue and lost more than $400 million. After Spiegel answered a question about Snapchat’s slowing user growth, an analyst, who apparently didn’t realize his line was live, said, “I didn’t even understand his response,” sounding as if he were about to burst out in laughter. This was before the 27-year-old CEO said investors should have faith in Snap’s chances against much bigger rivals because “we’ve always been last to market.”