Tech

Evan Spiegel ignored engineers trying to fix Snapchat's growth problem, says report

Key Points
  • Snapchat reported just 166 million global daily active users during the first quarter, less than the 167.3 million expected.
  • Executives said Android was part of the issue.
  • But internally, engineers clashed with executives on the way user growth was being addressed, a new report says.
Evan Spiegel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Snapchat.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Flagging user growth at Snapchat has amplified internal strife between the CEO and engineers, according to a new report by The Information.

Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel "refused to accept" that there was a growth problem, The Information reported. Later, Spiegel assigned engineers to kill a feature that he was convinced was causing the problem, despite that there was no data to back that claim, the report said.

Snap was not immediately available to comment on the report to CNBC.

Spiegel reportedly sent thank-you notes and flowers to the growth engineers after a lengthy presentation about user numbers. But the report said Spiegel also dismissed ideas from the growth team to ramp up the app's push notifications, opting instead to focus on product-driven engagement.

During Snap's IPO, Spiegel painted himself like another product-obsessed and very successful CEO: Steve Jobs. CNBC reported earlier this year that Spiegel had blamed slowing user growth on low-end Android phones during the IPO process.

During the first quarter, Snap executives told CNBC that the company had made progress improving the Android issues. Still, the company reported just 166 million global daily active users during the quarter, less than the 167.3 million expected by Wall Street.

For more on the internal growth discussion at Snap, see the article at TheInformation.com.