Instagram haunts Snapchat growth: report

Snapchat’s growth has slowed sharply during the past two months as Facebook and its Instagram app continue to copy the disappearing-photo app’s features, according to an analyst report.

Downloads of the app — operated by Venice, Calif.-based Snap Inc. — are down 22 percent yearover-year through the f irst two months of this year’s second quar- ter, according to Instinet analyst Anthony DiClemente.

That’s a sharp about-face from the first quarter, when Snapchat downloads rose 6 percent.

In the last two months, the slowdown has been steepest with iPhone users — dropping a drastic 40 percent, according to the report published Wednesday.

DiClemente noted that Facebook’s Instagram has been copying many of Snap’s features, for exam- ple allowing users to create “stories,” or series of video clips grouped together in a single post.

On its first-ever quarterly earnings call last month, Snap management downplayed fears about Facebook copying Snapchat’s features. Chief Executive Evan Spiegel also noted that the second and third quarters are slowest when it comes to advertising on Snapchat.

“We are surprised that a newly public company, supposedly early in its growth cycle, would see nearterm results impacted by broader seasonal ad market trends,” DiClemente wrote Wednesday.

Earlier this year, a former Snapchat employee sued the company, claiming it was inflating its user stats and growth metrics in marketing materials it gave to advertisers.

In response, Snapchat’s lawyers called the claim a “musty, two-yearold allegation about a minor metrics deviation.”